Lions Of Punjab Presents Movie Reviews

There are some films which come out of nowhere and suddenly manage to find an audience in spite of minimal (though smart) publicity. BHEJA FRY did it earlier this year. And now LOINS OF PUNJAB PRESENTS is all set to do so in the second half of the year.

You can't help feeling so, you know. Especially when there is a characters like Sudarsh Bokade [Jameel Khan] who has settled in USA but hasn't forgotten his uncouth ways rise from being a down-market event organizer. Watch out for him in the opening sequence where a correspondent interviews him first with simple questions and later beats his limited intelligence with her intellectual demeanor.

In spite of the film being centered on a 3 day weekend 'let's hunt for a desi singing idol' contest, never once do you find an unwanted spoof being the center of attraction here. There are number of references being made towards Bollywood but most of that is in true spirit of celebration of Hindi movies rather than being the opposite.

This ranges from dialogues to the movies to the songs. When Shabana Azmi [playing a celebrity social activist], a reasonably talented participant whose Guru wants her to be more sexy in her approach towards singing 'Chura Liya Hai Tumne', makes a wrong observation with the dialogue mouthed in DEEWAR, there is an American [Michael Raimondi] who corrects her.

In fact this American is a character in himself. With a desi girlfriend [Ayesha Dharker] in tow, he is all cool when it comes to tolerance and looks at the world around him in total white. So much so that he displays sportsman spirit at every juncture and wins everyone's heart with his accented yet flawless rendition of 'Jana Gana Mana' in the award winning round.

Film makwer Manish Acharya deserves credit for keeping the narrative simple yet wholly entertaining from the very opening frames. The way he uses the theme music of 'Apni To Jaise Taise' [LAAWARIS] in the opening credit title roll and then brings to screen each of his character one after another brings the house down. There is a byline supporting each of them on frame and the same holds good even when the curtain roll down in the climax.

The guy who evokes maximum laughter, claps and whistles in the film is Ajay Naidu who plays the role of an aspiring 'bhangra' star Turbanotorious B.D.G. Each of the sentence spoken by him has more profanities than the vowels involved and they get you off the chair rather than feel being offended. Especially the scene which involves him arguing with a Lobby Manager or the song crooned by him in the opening round of the talent hun.

Ishitta Sharrma in her debut film remains quite throughout the film with a reason. As a 17 going on 18, Ishitta is all coy and shy, though a brilliant singer. She doesn't talk and let her work (and Guddu family of 8 - or were they 9?) do the talking. But when she talks, she DOES make a statement. A statement of the kind that is bound to bring on the claps in the auditorium.

Seema Rahmani is a rare case of a young woman who looks cute as well as sexy. As someone who doesn't even know how to speak or read Hindi, she is beauty and 'ada' personified as she croons 'Bole Choodiyaan' [K3G].

But the real scene stealer is director Acharya himself who plays a statistician about to loose to his job to his brethren Indians in India. His impersonation as Shehanshah a la Bachchan is funny and when he justifies his continued Bachchan song ranting as a 'medley' with a straight face, you know that the guy understands his business. Reserve the claps when he joins Seema with the male version of 'Bole Choodiyaan'. Filmy...sheer filmy!

The film is an amalgamation of scenes that never fail to keep you involved. Topics like immigration, post 9/11 US citizens mentality, over-protectiveness towards children by desi residents, boys reaching puberty, homosexual relationships etc. are all told in a lighter vein so that none of them sound vague or forced. Do they still manage to make a point? Yes, of course they do, though in the bigger scheme of things, they continue to be subtle and play in the background.

Writer-director Manish Acharya comes up with an English film which constantly keeps you smiling throughout those 90 minutes. His debut film has humor laced in the narrative in such a manner that you are either smiling or clapping or occasionally even falling off your chair.