Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baaki Hai

Rajnish Raj Thakur's 'Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baaki Hai' is A Fair Comedy! It offers an interesting premise, and to an extent, it delivers. How one wishes if the Screenplay was funnier & tighter!

'Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baaki Hai' Synopsis: A struggling director finds his cut in Bollywood, only to meet strange & funny people in the process.

'Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baaki Hai' begins well & takes a dig at the Hindi Film Industry, bluntly. The Journey of its protagonist, Amar Joshi, played superbly by Sunil Shetty, is narrated fairly, as it offers some really funny moments. The Screenplay is humorous, but lacks sharpness in the Second-Hour. It definitely could've been tighter! Rajnish Raj Thakur's Direction is satisfactory. Cinematography is standard.

Performance-Wise: Sunil Shetty delivers superbly as Amar Joshi. As the struggling protagonist, Shetty doesn't miss a beat & delivers in every sequence. Rajpal Yadav is crackling, yet again! Udita Goswami is ordinary. Om Puri & Rakesh Bedi are brilliant in supporting roles. Mumaith Khan suits the part well. Neena Gupta is perfect. Deepak Shirke, Avtar Gill, Suresh Menon & Razzak Khan are memorable in cameos.

On the whole, 'Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baaki Hai' isn't hilarious, but funny in parts nevertheless.

If you are not prejudiced against Suniel Shetty, then this movie is an interesting watch.

MDPABH - this long titled flick is the story of Amar Joshi, a Banarasi film buff aspiring to be a director against everyone's wishes, who studies film direction in London and comes to Mumbai (the same old place where everyone in Hindi cinema comes to realize their dreams since time memorial), where accompanied by sidekick Suraj, an aspiring TV actor, he sets out to find a producer who will accept the script of his art film. Things are not easy for Amar as he is ridiculed, ignored and even rejected until he finds Monty, a producer who agrees to accept his script. But this again leads to issues for Amar. The rest is about whether or not Amar makes it big in Bollywood.

The film concept is interesting, but it probably won't appeal to anyone nowadays, combined with the prejudice people have. Hence no one would have even noticed when the film came to or left the theatres.

But Suniel Shetty's acting is good, and the film also has some famous names like Om Puri and Rajpal Yadav who have definitely done their best for their parts. There are few comedy scenes which are hilarious. The songs are catchy, and I decided to watch this because I heard a few tracks and liked them. Choreography is not good, some actors are just cheap ones acting in a cheap film that is being depicted in the film.

The first half is better than the second half.

Cannot watch more than once

Looking at its jaded posters, outdated star-cast and a title borrowed from the famous dialogue of a Shahrukh Khan's film (to gain some extra attention), its anybody guess that this would be nothing worth watching or wasting time on. But still I opted for it after many weeks of its initial release because I do love watching movies made on the Film Industry itself and its distinctive people in particular.

However, proving the above statement right, MDPABH did turn out to be one of those lost in the making kind of mediocre films which try to make mockery of film-makers, their questionable working styles and fixed routine patterns in its weak script. Revolving around the experiences of a young director who wishes to make a good film in Mumbai after completing his film-making course from abroad, it can easily be rated as a forcible comedy which fails to make you laugh through any of its gags or the so called funny sequences going over the top.

In order to make a Bhandarkar kind of spoof on the film industry, the director adds a bit of sarcasm too along with the useless deliberate humor in its various scenes. Cracking indicative jokes on Bhatts, Balaji, Karan Johar and many more famous names, the writers try to be realistic which doesn't work at all due to their below average sequences, unimpressive songs and predictable, uninteresting developments in the storyline. Hence, it can also be taken as another cheap version of the recently released HEROINE which even features veteran OM PURI as the industry's manipulative story-writer along with Sunil Shetty, Rajpal Yadav & Rakesh Bedi in the key roles.

But where the film remains a poor, forgettable attempt with a pretty ordinary take on the issue, it does have an important message for the Indian audience regarding the quality of HIT films here and the subject has also been used more than once in the past.

As per the theme of MDPABH, the film being made by the young producer gets new additions and changes every single day which eventually ruins the project completely, turning into a mindless film in the end. But ironically when it gets released, the meaningless venture unexpectedly becomes a big hit all over clearly making fun of the audience tastes and preferences at their face.

So as I feel, MDPABH needs to be taken as a spook on 'We the viewers' too who many a times turn a highly avoidable and below average film into a big hit just due to its star-cast featuring our favorite actor. The trend has been witnessed more strongly in this new millennium and there are many recent examples of such HIT movies which later are looked upon with amazement comparing their mediocre content with the success achieved.

Here many friends would remember that a few decades back there was a TV serial called "Yeh Shaadi Nahin Ho Sakti" wherein Sudhir Pandey played a famous entertaining character called "Mr. Golcha" who deliberately tries to make a FLOP film with the help of his entire silly team. And after many hilarious attempts when they release the film, the project becomes a big hit shockingly, ruining all their plans of losing a big amount of money as their losses. The subject was more recently adapted by another film "Dhoondhte Reh Jaoge" in 2009 which in fact was inspired by the original Oscar winner "The Producers" which actually explored this funny theme way back in 1968 for the first time.

Hence, may be MERE DOST PICTURE ABHI BAAKI HAI should be taken as a reminder of the same sarcasm targeted on 'We the audience' once again who are actually responsible for whatever is being served to them in the name of Hindi Cinema. And till such films made by people like "Mr. Golcha" will keep on becoming big hits, the Industry will go on making them forever……as that's exactly the rule of demand and supply in the market.