Film:	Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?
Directed By:	Ashwini Dhir
Screenplay:	Robin Bhatt, Ashwini Dhir, Tushar Hiranandani
Cinematographer:	Aseem Bajaj
Editor:	Dharmendra Sharma
Sound:	Subhash Sahoo
Music:	Pritam Chakrabarty
Cast:	Ajay Devgn, Konkona Sen Sharma, Paresh Rawal, Viju Khote,Satish Kaushik, Akhilendra Mishra, Sanjay Mishra

 

 

   

A guest who overstays his welcome, makes himself quite disagreeable with his unreasonable demands, and one who refuses to take any hints about leaving – sounds like a perfect nightmare and an idea for great comedy. But Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? is guilty of never developing the idea to justify a feature film length. Moreover, since there is nothing new or unpredictable in the situation, you would expect some novel / bizarre developments, and there aren’t any that have been developed properly enough to not feel contrived or predictable. And of course, the sermonizing – even though not agonizingly long – is very much present. 

Puneet (Ajay Devgn) and Munmun (Konkona) lead their busy, urban, insular lives in Mumbai. They have a little boy Ayush, whose Hindi teacher is not very happy with his progress as his Mom, who supervises his homework, is a Bengali and not very knowledgeable in the subject. Having been taught the phrase atithi deva bhavo in school, the little boy longs to have an atithi (guest) at home and one day it seems his prayers are answered. Lambodar Chacha (Paresh Rawal) from Gorakhpur lands up and though Puneet has no memory of him, convinces Puneet that they are indeed related, albeit distantly.  

Yes, Lambodar Chacha is the coarse rustic sort who slaps the building watchman on arrival, imposes upon his hosts in all possible ways, manages to infuriate the maid, gargles noisily at dawn, and farts all over the place. He is not even a bad guy but belongs to a time warp and behaving thus comes naturally to him. Worse still, he shows no desire to leave, compelling his hosts to think of novel ways to speed his departure. The problem is that the ways are not innovative enough and get boring in no time because of their predictable conclusions. Like when Puneet enlists the services of an underworld don to speed up Chacha’s departure, you know the don will have a change of heart. I also found it hard to believe that an urban couple like Puneet and Munmun will open their doors to an unexpected guest, of whose arrival or existence they had no idea. They never make a call to Gorakhpur to check with anyone else about Lambodar Chacha but trust him with their son and their home. They never ask him what brings him to the city, or when he will leave – questions that should be asked, even if a bit awkward.   

Yes, there are a few situations that are funny, like when Puneet, who’s a scriptwriter, takes Chacha along for a film mahurat and Chacha literally terrorizes actor Viju Khote, thrilled to bits upon encountering Kalia from Sholay. But the film soon runs out of steam and the songs slacken the pace even further – even though the suhani raat dhal chuki number is funny in bits. The second half is loaded with contrived scenes like the hotel raid scene, the police station scene and the Ganpati visarjan scene.  

The problem with the film is that the comedy is never irreverent and therefore dull. Comedy and sermonizing do not make good partners and if you are out to watch a comedy, you do not want to listen to lectures about changing value systems. The resolution liberally relies on divine intervention and is not fun. Okay, Ayush’s Hindi has improved, and I learnt my moral science lessons. But I didn’t have fun.  

Of the actors, Ajay Devgn is thankfully restrained and Paresh Rawal is, well, not inspired. Konkona is fairly effortless. The other actors don’t have much to do.  

The existence of films like these is sometimes justified by comparing them with an older generation of film-makers – Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee, etc – but the language of cinema has changed a lot since. I am not saying that a simple morality tale cannot be told any more, just that it has to be told with more imagination and without resorting to paradigms that are age-old. Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? is based on a short story by Sharad Joshi. And sadly, the film always feels like a story that is being stretched beyond any sense or interest.  

Like the guest in the film, the film too overstays its welcome…if it was ever welcome at all, that is. 

Rating: One and a half stars out of five

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