Awara Paagal Deewana

I've grown up watching Indian movies all my life and as such have learnt to accept that most of the time you have to take them with a whole bag of salt and not just a pinch. But for movies like this one, all the salt in the world doesn't prove to be enough! The plot is just plain weird, the acting is insanely cheesy, and the special effects are even cheesier and complete rip-offs from the Matrix, Mission Impossible 2 and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Ripping off action sequences or plot ideas from Hollywood movies is not something new to Bollywood but c'mon! There was no originality whatsoever to that whole action sequence performed by Akshay Kumar after He kills the Home Minister! What was the director trying to prove?! That Bollywood is really good at ripping off an action sequence from a movie that is so well known that just copying it in another movie loses all the charm for watching the sequence?!!

Where have all the good Indian movies gone?! Or have I just become too old to watch Indian movies anymore? I've been in America for the last four years and as such haven't watched hardly any Indian movies since but the few I have seen have left me disappointed. Even the ones which were more watchable than the rest were just terrible compared to American movies. The stories are so unrealistic and unbelievable and the acting by so many of the so-called "good" actors is just barely edible. No thought is given to the audience's intelligence when penning the script; and the strange thing is that this is probably not that much of a problem because most of the poor and uneducated masses in India lap it up!

APD starts off as a 'Been there, Seen that' yawn of a movie. In true Bollywood style, it rehashes Action from 'The Matrix' and a plot more than loosely based on 'The Whole Nine Yards'. Akshay Kumar, who is slowly establishing himself as an actor par excellence with every movie he signs makes one wonder why he is doing the same thing again, especially when you see how lame the action looks in the context. But then, about half an hour into the movie, something happens that has one rivetted to their seat for the next two hours. Paresh Rawal enters. The more said about him, the better it gets. the bellyaching laughs start and don't stop, even if you try your best. And what's more amazing is that his singular joke in the movie never gets old. Such is the explosive talent of this fine actor. There is a myriad of characters to keep you laughing, one kookier than the rest.

Akshay is good as the Serious, no nonsense don who can't help but work with the army of misfits surrounding him. Suneil Shetty, in the smallest role of the film manages to come across as very funny as the man who forgets simple words. Johnny Lever as the stammering sidekick with a short fuse is hilarious, especially in his one 2 one's with Rawal. Aftab Shivdasani carries the part of a henpecked Husband with conviction.

Supriya is great as Paresh Rawal's menacing wife. Out of the three leading women, Aarti Chabria has the best role, but pity she is not as good an actress as is needed to carry it off. And finally, Paresh Rawal... funny to the hilt, his innocent, miserable husband who cannot remember names is simply fantastic.