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This review contains spoilers.

HTPL is a delightful film for more reasons than one. It is a glowing proof to how well-worked stories can still work even with not so revolutionary treatment or setting.
GOA. How lame can you get?
A bus full of quirky characters, each theatrically distinct in mannerisms and hair-do’s. lame.
A driver-conductor crew trying to mouth dehati abuses and laughing at the tourist-crew’s back. Still doesn’t get better.
If you try finding out why this film works you might literally miss the ‘bus’. Liril fresh faces, designer clothes, cardboard characters, postcard images, and you will have fun. The screen is always populated with these 10-12 faces who display a wide contrasting range of antics. If you look closely, all of the characters have two faces to them, and the difference comes more prominently in the case of Sandhya Mridul’s character. A fearless direction breaks and re-breaks moulds to give a no-holds barred look to the film.

It is not trying to be different and that’s whats fun about it. The winner is the well worked and nuanced characters. They stay with you. With constant references to the 70’s Bollywood of Gulzar. Panchamda & Hrishida, Reema Kagti gives her own little tribute to her (guessing) formative years. Vishal Shekhar do a funtoo job on the soundtrack laden with jhankaar. The narrative moves effortlessly from comic to confrontational to emotional to really really wacky. Amisha Patel couldn’t have asked for a better role, she is a painful delight in every frame she occupies, just like a constant reminder of Indian ‘bridal-loudmouth’ sentimentalities in a cosmo-crowd increasingly trying to disregard its bearings. After this one and Celina’s Sania Badnaam in apna sapna money money, we just might have a blonde movement started on screen in Bollywood.

‘the guy who plays Vicky’ is a nice change from the regular sohail khans and aftabs and their ilk.

Boman Irani keeps the viewer glued to the screen with his electric presence and vista of expressions, he needs no lines for emoting, that’s his strength, he includes you in his pain and self-depracation, much like Ranveer, who connects to the Upper Stall as well as the Balcony with razor sharp precision and interest levels.

It would be a credit to a director if she manages to underplay a Shabana Azmi, she is an absolute joy to watch any day any film. The sequence at the party (we are Mr & Mrs 55) is very ably handled, so would be the scenes between KK and Raima Sen(what a find!). Not even a single story sticks out like a sore thumb, you feel like a part of the journey.

Watch KK in the portions building up to the ‘Sajnaji’ song and you will know why he is considered one of the best actors out there.
The best kept secret is the story involving Abhay Deol & Minissha Lamba, something which doesn’t go down quite smoothly with the Indian cine-sensibilities(too many why’s and how’s and so-dumb’s), but this is a film Kevin Smith(Clerks) would approve of. The ultracool RJ narration also deserves a mention; I took it as a take on many other forms of cinema and soaps, that’s how it worked for me I guess. The take homes could highly differ.

Anurag Kashyap uses toned down dialogues, something which comes between slapstick (seety-worthy) and multiplex-friendly. Ranveer and KK’s portions and the Aspy-Zara RJ voice over (Hailey’s comet) are downright hilarious.
Vikram Chatwal plays himself, a confused desi, with ease. Sandhya Mridul is full of verve and latino charm (god knows what that means!).

Apart from the regular views on the film, what I found interesting is how the film is a reviewer’s delight, there is so many characters to write about. All the departments might not be top league, the story might not be convincing enough(why would a shy Dia Mirza turn into a ‘main bhaag jaaoongi’ types, planning to spend the rest of her life with a man on run in a quite ‘nadiya-kinare’ cottage), the colors might not be consistent, the overall genre might not be uniform(it moves from a road trip flick to an emotional quest into the characters to slapstick to urban humor to stereotyped Dil Chahta Hai sequences), but THAT’S THE FUN! That’s why it’s a reviewer’s delight.
Go for the ride!

Tushar Shukla

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