Raat Gayi, Baat Gayi?

After a long gap, comes an impressive and entertaining offbeat flick talking about the extra marital affairs in a comical manner. An intelligent satire on the ever changing relationships of 3 married couples and their reunion; it is not a usual cup of tea for every lover of Hindi Cinema. In fact the movie is strictly for adults and the multiplex viewers who can easily understand the overdose of English conversations included in its narration. And though it revolves around the memory loss of a particular night and its happenings, still it is not a remake or an inspired version of the English Hit "Hangover" as expected.

It's a comeback movie of writer-actor-director Saurabh Shukla, which excels with its impressive performances, funny dialogues and realistic take on the High Society culture and its famous parties. The story revolves around a weekend party where all the characters are there interacting with each other. Rajat Kapoor arrives there to attend the party along with his wife Irawati and their kid girl. After a few drinks he gets attracted towards Neha Dhupia, who is also there in the party with her boyfriend. They both start with some casual talks and end up being in a room all alone. Now the next morning when Rajat wakes up, he cannot exactly remember what had happened last night and he is still confused that whether they both did 'it' or not. From here, starts the actual mix-up where everyone starts blaming the other for his undisclosed and awkward position.

In actual terms, "Raat Gayi Baat Gayi" is not a loud comedy with over the top sexual sequences as seen in some recent lousy comedies. On the contrary it's a smart and intellectual kind of movie which more or less depends upon the entertaining verbal conversations between its characters. It's indeed a treat to watch the husbands & wives talking bitterly about their spouses and then later repenting upon their own remarks and feeling sorry for it. In simple words, the movie entertains in its first half where everyone is lovingly teasing each other in the party and then remarkably enlightens its viewers in the second half when the characters move on to the path of their self-realisation.

The most entertaining scenes include the ones where Rajat Kapoor & Vinay Pathak are discussing the one night stand with each other. Later Dilip Tahil joins in, making it even more hilarious and absorbing. Besides that, Saurabh also softly points out towards many famous social superstitions like Feng- Shui and Tarot Reading through some intelligently written scenes in his script. And the last half an hour of the movie, when all the confusions are being cleared about that particular night, proves as a perfect ending for a well directed movie based on the uncontrolled human relationships.

If you loved the artistic kind of movies made in the 70s & 80s, then you will readily appreciate the efforts put in "Raat Gayi Baat Gayi" accompanied by many superlative performances to enjoy. The best act comes from Rajat Kapoor and Vinay Pathak, which gets equally supported by the sizzling beauty, Neha Dhupia who looks too hot in her revealing outfits. Rest of the cast includes, Dalip Tahil, Irawati Harshe, Anu Menon, Navnit Nisshan and Aamir Bashir, who also provide many funny and amusing moments for the viewers. To complete the team lead by Rajat Kapoor there are few special cameos too made by the well known, Ranvir Shorey, Marakand Deshpande and the renowned director Sudhir Mishra.

Interestingly both Ranvir and Marakand have the two most hilarious scenes in the script where Ranvir is talking about his innovative "Kukkad" dish and Marakand is showing his palmistry skills to a lady. Musically the film has nothing exceptional to offer with Ankur Tewari's musical score mainly working only as a fine filler. Cinematography is captivating with expressive close-ups, soothing lighting and innovative colour schemes used in the backgrounds.

Incidentally, "Raat Gayi Baat Gayi" reminded me of another realistic gem called "Party" (1984), which also revolved around a similar get-together sequence involving several characters from the richer section of the society. The 80s masterpiece was directed by Govind Nihalani and it seems that the movie was somehow there in Saurabh's mind while writing the script of his current venture. The climax was also pretty close to Rajat's own movie on wife swapping with the title "Mixed Doubles" released in 2006.

Summing up, 'Raat Gayi Baat Gayi" is a well directed and superbly acted movie which will mostly appeal to the thinking viewers who love the realistic, offbeat and artistic kind of cinema. Go for it if you are a fan of this particular genre.

Raat Gayi Baat Gayi? Means is meaning gone if night is gone? Not really, if you are a married man, you were with a bombshell in a cocktail party last night and can't remember a thing in the morning. So you gotta wake- up and find what happened last night? This movie is a mini satire on high class society, their two faces; one for public and one for personal life. Directed by Saurabh Shukla and played by few good known names like Rajat Kapoor, Vinay Pathak and Dilip Tahil, the movie never looses you in its less than two hours length. At the end, bad characters come good and good as bad ones and you understand that everything is not what it seems, every chatter box is not a fool, every intellectual person is not honest, independence does not mean not listening to your mind and anything can happen to anyone in this funny life. Enjoy this small satire for its honest characterization and lovely messages to keep your love intact.

One of the finest actors of Hindi cinema, Saurabh Shukla Directs 'Raat Gayi, Baat Gayi?'. And luckily, Shukla has made a fairly entertaining rom-com, that doesn't fail to impress.

'Raat Gayi, Baat Gayi?' Synopsis: Following a wild party, a married man meets with his friends in order to try and remember his indiscretions.

What makes 'Raat Gayi, Baat Gayi?' work is its simplistic story & the characters it has. While the protagonist is good, the supporting characters appeal as much or even more. Especially the character played by Neha Dhupia. Its a well-written character!

Shukla who also Wrote The Story & Screenplay along-with Rajat Kapoor, makes sure there is movement in the narrative. Though slow-paced & dull in parts, the film works otherwise due to the interesting sequences it offers. Shukla has Directed the film well. Cinematography, Editing & Art Design, are okay.

Performance-Wise: Neha Dhupia excels in a meaty role. She delivers her best performance to date. Rajat Kapoor is perfect as the protagonist. Vinay Pathak is remarkably credible, as always. Dalip Tahil is in top form. Iravati is effective. Anu Menon is equally good. Navneet Nishan is adequate. In cameos, Ranvir Shorey & Aamir Bashir leave a mark.

On the whole, 'Raat Gayi, Baat Gayi?' has genuine merits.

This movie begins at a party with a married man named "Rahul Kapoor" (Rajat Kapoor) flirting with a beautiful woman named "Sophia" (Neha Dhupia) and then waking up the next day with his wife "Mitali Kapoor" (Iravati Harshe) being extremely upset with him and subsequently taking their daughter and leaving. To make matters even more complicated, Rahul drank too much that night and doesn't remember whether he slept with Sophia or not. So to sort everything out and get some idea why his wife is angry he decides to ask his friends who were at the party about what exactly happened. Unfortunately, the first person he asks is his friend "Amit" (Vinay Pathak) who is also having domestic problems with his own wife due to certain issues at that same party and he is equally bewildered and confused. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that I was slightly disappointed in this film because it had a certain amount of potential which was never fully realized. To be sure, the actors were competent enough but the humor wasn't nearly as keen as it could have been. Even so, this certainly wasn't a bad movie by any means and because of that I have rated it accordingly. Average.

Rajat Kapoor camp has given us some memorable offbeat flicks in the past (remember mithya and mixed double!!). So I had pretty high expectations from RGBG which I feel sorry to say did not meet them fully. The movie is not too disappointing, it has its funny moments and a good ending; but it seriously lacks in the script and screenplay. Though the end is surprising, the first half does not generate much curiosity about "What the hell really happened last night between Rahul and Sophiya?". A few more twists in the tail and a tighter screenplay could have done the job.

The movie scores well in most of the other aspects. The actors are at their best, especially Vinay Pathak, Navneet Nishan and Ranvir Shourey (he creates magic even with such few scenes). Neha was amazing as a 'totta' and I am glad she is emerging as a fine actor with movies like Dasvidaniya, Ek Chaalis, Maharathi and RGBG. Iravati is a refreshing entry in Rajat's camp and I hope she stays. The background music is good, could have been better.

Overall, it is a nice watch for multiplex crowd, but not the kind of stuff you expect form the ensemble.