Fails to deliver. Review on Home Delivery

Probably Sujoy’s first film Jhankar Beats that met with success made him brave enough to liberally experiment with form in this next movie. So much so that it distracts.

The story is short and simple. Viveik plays Sunny who thinks he’s a smart guy with a wit and intelligence much above average. He writes an agony aunt column called Gyan Guru in a newspaper but never follows his ‘Gyan’ in his own life. He never pays up the pizza delivery guys by convincing them they are late and as per the pizza joint’s commitment of punctuality to customers, no payment is required. His first big break is getting to write a script for Karan Johar (Who plays himself in the movie) and he’s currently stuck with it at one of the turns.. He is egoistic and arrogant, fears commitment in marriage with his girlfriend (Ayesha Takia). He comes across a fading film star in a TV chat show shoot where he and the actress were invited as guests for interview. He had always admired this actress and fell for her during his brush with her. The story unfolds in the day he was expecting this actress in his apartment. A pizza delivery man (Boman Irani) comes in. Over the next few hours several incidents unfold and Sunny’s life changes, for the better. He becomes a better human being at the end.

The story was good enough for making a light, fun movie with a strong message on philosophy of life. But the director mishandles it and spoils it’s potential. He plays too much with form, at the cost of ignoring the script which is the weakest part of the film. He has chosen not to use the narrative style throughout. But he seems to have lost focus of the story. There were not too many characters or too many happenings. Hence special focus on the script was required to make it taut and capable of holding audience attention. Rather than telling a story, the director diverts to adding spice to it with unnecessary songs and dream sequences. Also, the serial killer sub-plot looks like a bad joke, totally avoidable.

The cinematography is good. The music, though not bad, has been used uselessly.

Of the performances, Viveik looks convincing as arrogant Sunny. Ayesha fits in as Nanni, his girlfriend who accepts him with all his weaknesses and copes up with him no matter however emotionally hurting he is. She has become a bit plump and looks very real, pleasant and refreshingly different, unlike the present lot of heroines obsessed with their bodies. Boman Irani is perfectly cast as the unmindful pizza delivery guy who is unable to keep any job beyond two days but is madly in love with his dead wife. It’s his philosophy of life that ultimately changes Sunny’s. Mahima plays the actress of South Indian origin who can aptly be called ‘Cleavage queen’. She drops her sari pallu pretty often (Even in the TV show) to show her cleavage in extremely low-neck blouse in order to nourish her sex-symbol tag and to seduce producers into casting couch. The director simply goes overboard with this pallu-dropping and beyond a point it started looking ridiculous. Juhi Chawla looks right for the small role of the frustrated editor who fails on all consecutive attempts to get Sunny to the office. Saurabh Shukla fits the role of an irritating neighbour who gets into Sunny’s flat for favours without caring for his response .

Overall, a below-par timepass movie.