Starcast: Pankaj Kapoor, Deven Bhojani, Manoj Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Hemant Pandey,
Asawari Joshi, Gaurav Kapoor, Farida Jalal, Makrand Deshpande, Vinay Jain,
Mahesh Thakur etc.
Director: Rajiv Mehra
Mahesh Thakur etc.
Director: Rajiv Mehra
After successful tv series, Chala Musaddi Office Office is unable to justify itself on big screen. Though this critic is a confessed fan of the television sitcom, mainly for Pankaj Kapur's common man character Musaddi Lal who gets into a new bureaucratic bind every week, one must admit to being deeply disappointed by the movie adaptation of an otherwise good series.
The movie adaptation, directed by Rajiv Mehra, with a script by Ashwini Dhir, sees the TV show literally ported to the big screen, with the same top line cast, and even the same sort of comic punches. Pankaj Kapur's Musaddi Lal this time is a retired schoolmaster, who leaves on a teerth yatra with his late wife's ashes, only to come back to find that he has been in advance declared dead and his pension has been blocked. Along the way, he runs into an assorted set of crooked government types, including dirty doctors, treacherous ticket collectors and profiteering pandits, all of whom he has to pay off on the insistence of his street-smart, aggressive son, Bunty, played by Gaurav Kapoor. Once back home, Musaddi decides to wage a battle against the bureaucracy, to prove that he is, indeed, Musaddi, and he's absolutely alive and kicking, something that the corrupt pen pushers of the pension department say no to believe.
Where the movie adaptation begins to seem ill-conceived is in the fact that director Mehra has his main cast, made up of the gifted Deven Bhojani, Manoj Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Hemant Pandey and Asawari Joshi, kitted out in so many roles, that it stretches gullibility. So, the same Deven Bhojani who is a junior babu at the pension office, is also the collector from whom Musaddi needs to seek an affidavit, while the same Manoj Pahwa who is a doctor, also plays TC on Musaddi's train journey. While one can understand the move from a comic standpoint, the end result is that instead of watching a film, the experience leaves you wondering whether this isn't just an 'Office Office' epic from TV instead.
The film's humor is faulty as well, pulling the same comic tricks that one is recognizable with on TV. While things like Deven Bhojani's nahin toh doh baatein hongi jokes and Asawari Joshi continuously doing household work in office is funny enough on TV, it seems Rajiv and Ashwini both fail to realize that on a bigger screen, you need more effective humour as well. Particularly since Musaddi Lal's troubles so perfectly capture the ill fated of the Indian common man, one would have hoped that the makers of the movie would have focused on more realistic humour as well, finding the funny in the pathos of Musaddi's situations. That the team behind the movie chooses to keep the film so simplistically predictable, with an end that you can spot from a mile that is quite a disappointment.
Still, the movie has its silver linings, sparkling particularly in the acting department. There is nothing that needs to be said of Pankaj Kapur's Musaddi, given that the nation has been in love with him for years in the role now. Kapur puts on a master class in acting every time he's on screen in any movie and it's the same here, with his helpless and hopefulness in the worst of conditions coming across in every scene. The others in the ensemble cast, Deven Bhojani, Manoj Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Hemant Pandey and Asawari Joshi, have been living with their characters for years now, and manage to make it a great job too, with flexible Bhojani especially so. The only other fixed member of the cast is Gaurav Kapoor, and he does well for himself.
If Chala Musaddi Office Office' works in any part, credit is due to the gifted cast of players it features, and the humor inherent in the 'Office Office' idea. Otherwise, the movie is a disappointment on Ashwini Dhir and Rajiv Mehra's parts, who fail to bring anything new to the table here.
The movie adaptation, directed by Rajiv Mehra, with a script by Ashwini Dhir, sees the TV show literally ported to the big screen, with the same top line cast, and even the same sort of comic punches. Pankaj Kapur's Musaddi Lal this time is a retired schoolmaster, who leaves on a teerth yatra with his late wife's ashes, only to come back to find that he has been in advance declared dead and his pension has been blocked. Along the way, he runs into an assorted set of crooked government types, including dirty doctors, treacherous ticket collectors and profiteering pandits, all of whom he has to pay off on the insistence of his street-smart, aggressive son, Bunty, played by Gaurav Kapoor. Once back home, Musaddi decides to wage a battle against the bureaucracy, to prove that he is, indeed, Musaddi, and he's absolutely alive and kicking, something that the corrupt pen pushers of the pension department say no to believe.
Where the movie adaptation begins to seem ill-conceived is in the fact that director Mehra has his main cast, made up of the gifted Deven Bhojani, Manoj Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Hemant Pandey and Asawari Joshi, kitted out in so many roles, that it stretches gullibility. So, the same Deven Bhojani who is a junior babu at the pension office, is also the collector from whom Musaddi needs to seek an affidavit, while the same Manoj Pahwa who is a doctor, also plays TC on Musaddi's train journey. While one can understand the move from a comic standpoint, the end result is that instead of watching a film, the experience leaves you wondering whether this isn't just an 'Office Office' epic from TV instead.
The film's humor is faulty as well, pulling the same comic tricks that one is recognizable with on TV. While things like Deven Bhojani's nahin toh doh baatein hongi jokes and Asawari Joshi continuously doing household work in office is funny enough on TV, it seems Rajiv and Ashwini both fail to realize that on a bigger screen, you need more effective humour as well. Particularly since Musaddi Lal's troubles so perfectly capture the ill fated of the Indian common man, one would have hoped that the makers of the movie would have focused on more realistic humour as well, finding the funny in the pathos of Musaddi's situations. That the team behind the movie chooses to keep the film so simplistically predictable, with an end that you can spot from a mile that is quite a disappointment.
Still, the movie has its silver linings, sparkling particularly in the acting department. There is nothing that needs to be said of Pankaj Kapur's Musaddi, given that the nation has been in love with him for years in the role now. Kapur puts on a master class in acting every time he's on screen in any movie and it's the same here, with his helpless and hopefulness in the worst of conditions coming across in every scene. The others in the ensemble cast, Deven Bhojani, Manoj Pahwa, Sanjay Mishra, Hemant Pandey and Asawari Joshi, have been living with their characters for years now, and manage to make it a great job too, with flexible Bhojani especially so. The only other fixed member of the cast is Gaurav Kapoor, and he does well for himself.
If Chala Musaddi Office Office' works in any part, credit is due to the gifted cast of players it features, and the humor inherent in the 'Office Office' idea. Otherwise, the movie is a disappointment on Ashwini Dhir and Rajiv Mehra's parts, who fail to bring anything new to the table here.
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