Delhi Belly

Rating : 3/4

So it has finally happened; a mainstream bollywood flick with few holds on profanity and vulgarity- no beeping over 'fuck' or its derivatives, the arse is off taboo list, crudeness is hiked almost to the point of celebration and, in occasion, used as a plot-device. It is a pleasant surprise that this movie made its way out through the censor board.

Unrelated chains of events with unfortunate but hilarious consequences, criss-crossing randomly and culminating at one shoot-out at the end of 1hr 30 mins- thats Delhi Belly in single breath. No, its not a Guy Ritchie film, but DB's writer and director are definitely influenced by Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. The template is copied but the dark filling is thankfully a fresh brew. Three friends/roommates - Tashi, Nitin,Arup - have a bad start when they forget whose turn it is to move the buckets to under the tap one morning. Meanwhile, a gangster is having a bad day too when he has to search for a delivery that hasn't reached him. A series of coincidences and mix-ups later, the trio unwillingly join the hunt while trying to survive the chase.

The gangster's emotional arc - frustration at his inept teammates, patience when cajoling a girl, coldness when torturing a middleman, resignation when he isn't allowed to do room service for quality reasons - all conveyed with a straight face contributes to some of the best laughs. Imran's Tashi feels as fake as his black-eye. He stands out as a guy reciting someone else's funny lines. His only good scenes in the movie are when he is fully covered up or when he doesn't speak much. His friends - Nitin and Arup - however, are very believable and provide the rest of the comedy, given the same screen time as Imran. In fact, Nitin's Disco Fighter revenge is the most original and my personal favourite comic episode in the movie.

What I found a little hard to understand is why the writer and/or director wanted everything to work out perfectly well for the threesome in the end, so much so that they were brutal to everyone else who might even hint at trouble.

The screenplay is not clever enough to pack any surprises, but thats easily excused because it takes us where we expect to reach, bloody cheerfully.