A comedy with a story too. Review on Deewane Hue Paagal

I saw DHP a couple months ago, but never got around to posting a review of it on MouthShut until now.

The movie is overall entertaining. It works for me because it is not just a string of funny scenes, but actually has a story that holds it all together and allows for moments of drama and tension. However, DHP is far from perfect; after finishing it, I still felt something was missing.

Plot

DHP is about a bunch of male characters in love with Rimi Sen's character, and the lies and comical situations they go through to try to get close to her. DHP is also about a villainous family trying to get a hold of a toy parrot that will help them get their hands on a secret de-aging formula! Both plot strands provide their fair share of laughs, tense moments, and emotional moments.

Positives

I laughed quite a few times. Unlike Garam Masala, which I was very disappointed with yet still laughed at, DHP has more of a story -- so my laughter felt like part of a complete experience rather than something to enjoy at the time but ultimately forgettable. My favorite comedic scene is probably when Suniel and Akshay's character meet for the first time; Akshay, who is posing as an architect, is challenged to name things he had designed. I also like a funny scene where Shahid is attacked by a dog, and the cute ''picture-album'' stuff that follows it. Paresh Rawal and Suniel's first meeting is funny, also.

Emotional scenes are interspersed in the movie, well, at appropriate times. These came primarily from Shahid's character, interacting with Rimi who plays his college sweetheart. They act well in these scenes. No scenes made me cry though.

This is the first time I've really unequivocally liked Shahid Kapur, who I've also seen in Ishq Vishk and Fida. I think I liked him this time because he's not as smugly ''larger than life'' in DHP as he was in Ishq Vishk. He just plays a sweet kid, charmingly, and dances awesomely.

Viveik Anand Oberoi's narration is almost completely unnecessary. I think Viveik did fine, don't get me wrong; I just don't understand why he was there. It almost seems he was put in as an afterthought because the movie ran over-length, as a way to narrate what happened in bits that were edited out -- no idea if that is what happened or not.

Suniel Shetty is good (still not as much as in his most effective role I've seen though, as a multilayered army officer in Refugee) -- but so are Rimi Sen, Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Vijay Raaz, Johnny Lever (I realized I had been missing him!!), Om Puri and really the whole cast.

I should also mention that Aftab Shivdasani is noticeable in his small role at the end. He gives off just the right aura.

There are some twists which I didn't see coming. I was especially floored by the reveal of all the henchmen in the quarry.

The songs are okay-to-good. The one introducing Akshay (''Chakle Chakle'') is catchy despite the picturization being a little too ''sexed'' for me. I wish the song at the beginning of the second half, amidst the windmills, hadn't been cut off -- the picturization looked good to me for as much as we saw of it. The song that goes to Universal Studios in Hollywood had me wondering if they shot it when I lived in L.A., and I missed it! I also like the dance competition song between Shahid and Akshay because of its importance to characterization and plot, and because Shahid dances so well in it.

The ''values'' at the end are reassuringly Bollywood. It's easy for a movie to win me over -- just throw in someone sacrificing, hehe.

Negatives

On the negative side, I think there was a bit too much violence in this movie, and I think what Akshay did with the dog was cruel rather than funny.

Also, the interval did not feel like it came at the right place. It just sprang up.

There seemed to be some minor plot inconsistencies (though maybe that was a misunderstanding on my part). One inconsistency I noticed was that Suniel's character says he researched ''Rocky Oberoi'', but Akshay's character had told Tanya/Natasha (and Tanya had then told Suniel's character) that he was ''Rocky some_other_last_name.''

Another negative: Somehow, despite the movie working for me, it did not leave me with a feel-good feeling (Viveik talking about leaving the hall happy rang hollow with me) -- don't know why. Maybe it was too violent. Most movies these days are either too violent, too incomplete, too vulgar, too clever, or too bittersweet at the end to make me feel good. It's a real myth that Bollywood does ''feel-good'' a lot, in my opinion.

I haven't seen There's Something About Mary, so I can't compare the movies.

Overall: 7.5/10. Worth watching once.