Gain some Gyaan.. Review on Home Delivery

I must be an artist coz rewards and schemes just don’t seem to motivate me. In the midst of a leisurely vacation I came across the contest on MS to write five reviews in order to stand a chance to win some cash prizes among other goodies. One part of my mind started functioning immediately ogling at the prizes to be won and wanted to type out five reviews at once. The other part of the mind, which does not listen to reason, had different plans, procrastination being one among them. So as the days flew by so did my motivation and January 31st (the deadline) came and went and I hadn’t typed out a single solitary word. Anyway a week later here I am about to enlighten you with some gyaan on this movie called Home Delivery which centers around a bloke who is supposed to be a Gyaan Guru. So get your brain cells in working condition and read on.

Actually I was in two minds while renting out this movie coz I cannot stand a certain Mr. Vivek Oberoi. But I eventually decided to go with it because Equation1 says: Ayesha Takia+Mahima Choudry showing cleavage (>) Vivek Oberoi. And the pansy just got dumped by his sweety poo so let’s offer him our sympathies.

So what do we have here that we haven’t seen before. Plenty I must say, but it’s all old wine in a new bottle. So is the bottle any good? Time to find out. Vivek Anand Oberoi, yes he changed his name recently due to some numerology mumbo-jumbo, which going by the fate of his professional or personal life doesn’t seem to be working. Anyway so the Oberoi boy is an Agony Uncle for the Times of Hindustan, and solves your problems whether they be related to love, marriage, romance or life in general. Despite the do-gooder advice that he pedals in his column he doesn’t believe in practicing what he preaches. In the meantime he sits in front of his lap-top enjoying the care and warmth of his live-in-girlfriend Nani (Ayesha Takia), trying to bang out a script for Karan Johar’s next flick. Ayesha is the complete opposite of Vivek, she is sweet, caring, sensitive and completely excited about their upcoming marriage. Vivek on the other hand thinks of himself as the all-knowing self-proclaimed gyaan guru who has all the answers in life and knows how to get his way out of anything. He counts among his biggest victories returning a used shirt to the store just because someone else had the same design, fooling his flat-mate into believing that he has a special talent for singing and not paying the poor Pizza Delivery guy for his order by convincing him that he was late.

Among the meanderings, Vivek or rather Sunny Chopra (as his name in the film goes) has a talk show interview to attend where he runs into Miss Maya (Mahima Choudary) who is a southern starlet showing more cleavage in a sari than Pam Anderson ever could in a two-piece bikini. Turns out she was the object of Sunny’s desire in his teen years and he is a walking encyclopedia on knowing everything about her likes and dislikes. Maya is looking for a break in Hindi films and turns on the charm when she finds out Sunny is writing the script for Karan Johar’s next. Sunny goes all the way out to drop Miss Maya to her hotel, and also unwittingly invites her home for her favorite Gajar ka Halva.

The next day he somehow crawls out of a commitment to visit Nani’s family and persuades her to go alone so that he can have the apartment to himself when Maya visits. He then scratches his head as to how on earth would he ever be able to scrape together some Gajar ka Halva. Meanwhile he orders for Pizza from the same outlet and this time the delivery man turns out to be a pot-bellied, bearded, jolly looking good fella called Michael (Boman Irani). Apparently Michael has a history of not lasting at any job for more than 2 days. What strange twist of fate has brought Michael to Sunny’s doorstep? What will happen when Sunny tries to pull the same “You’re late, so I’m not gonna pay you” stunt on Michael? Does the Gajar ka Halva ever get made? Do Maya and Nani run into each other? Does Sunny ever get the script written for Karan Johar? And finally what Gyaan does a simple optimistic Michael give to the all knowing Gyaan Guru?

So did I like it? Have to say it’s a nice sweet movie and that coming from me is a compliment coz I am not really into candy floss. But everything said and done it does not live up to its promise and what you would expect from Sujoy Ghosh after Jhankar Beats. The problem is the movie lacks a distinct identity. Jahankar Beats was real, it had situations that you and I could identify with. Home Delivery is an effort to combine real life situations with humor, abstract objects, metaphors and a whole lot of technical gimmickry thrown in ala Kal ho na ho style. The result therefore leaves a lot to be desired.

The characterization is weak. There isn’t enough that projects Sunny as the cynical rat that has everything but his own life in control. The music is, well..umm….what music, I cant seem to remember one song apart from Happy Diwali which is pleasant. Of the performances, Vivek Oberoi puts in a decent performance like he always does, so I am not gonna bust his chops too much. Plus did I mention that he just got dumped like a hot potato. Hee..hee. Sinister little me. Mahima Choudary delivers what was required of her with a touch of class. There is absolutely no vulgarity about the skin show. And lastly it’s Ayesha Takia who steals the show for me, with her charming do-gooder, loving girlfriend, doting sister and caring daughter act. God, she is so convincing. Where did women like that go?

Plus there are truckloads of special appearances by Abhishek Bachan, Karan Johar, Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla, Shayan Munshi and a few others whom I might have missed coz I have the blink rate of a normal human being. That was funny..oh c’mon the term “blink and you’ll miss” was coined for this movie.

So that’s about it. If you want to enjoy a nice, light-hearted, fluffy comedy on a lazy afternoon go rent this one out. Just don’t expect too much and you won’t be disappointed.

And before I go, I have some self-promotion to do. Film producers do it all the time so why not me. https://kidmane.blogspot.com is the URL to my Blog. Get clicking if you have a moment to spare and want to zoom into my thoughts. Until next time, Thanks for Reading.