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There are so many reference points for ‘Punjabi’ in films. You tend to go about it stereotypically. Dhaba. Butter Chicken. Lassi. Aloo da paratha. Truck drivers. Jalandhar. Patiala. Phagwada. And so on.

The question is, what defines it? The culture, the language, the mannerisms, the way of life… and the music and dance that finds itself in an exhortation of life. We have seen umpteen films on Punjabi culture, mostly taking Punjabi as a fallback and moving on with whatever story they got, with a modest dose of naach-gaana, bhangra et al. sometimes the film goes awry and the director thinks ‘Punjabi!’ and lo and behold you get yourself a dhamaka item number. Universally acceptable oft-pointless song and dance. Oye balle oye. Bhangra paao ji paaji, giddha paao ni kudiyon.

Let’s take the discussion further. Punjabi pop. Daler Mehndi. Malkit Singh. London Brigade. You think of the words Billo, Jugni, …

It’s been a long time coming.

Just read an article on IndiaFM.com that Dibakar Banerjee, Director of the critically acclaimed, immensely likeable film “Khosla Ka Ghosla” has finally announced his next film.

Titled “Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye” (kickass title IMHO) the film stars the talented Mr. Abhay Deol as a thief who, as per Banerjee himself, “starts a normal thief and then later climbs up the status graph and becomes a very rich and well known crook.”

The film also co-stars Neetu Chandra (of Traffic Signal… we’ll conviently forget that Garam Masala was infact her debut film) and, what seems to be the ace up Banerjee’s sleeve, Paresh Rawal in an interesting Triple Role.

If Anupam Kher, Ranvir Shoery, Parvid Dabas, Navin Nischol and even Tara Sharma put in some stellar performances, one looks forward to even more from “Oye Lucky, Lucky Oye” (which I’m guessing will be referred to …