Malamaal Weekly : Thanda Garam Copy
How you react to a movie pretty much depends on how crappy the movie is. If it isn’t crap then your reaction is somewhat dependent on what state of mind or mood you are in or what khujli the thoughts in your head are creating… like - boss kicked your ass earlier, you had a premature ejaculation, your latest expensive gadget refuses to switch on, your wife/girlfriend hasn’t taken care of your mini-me for 116 days at a stretch etc. etc.
Reviewers are guilty of this too. Good movies get run down. Bad movies get 5 stars. Many a times, I suspect, it’s the sight of their paycheck which envelopes them in a constant state of every increasing depression that leads them to opine rather tangent on movies they see. Ofcourse it isn’t true of all professional reviewers.
As a result of this minor observation, let me reveal to you, dear reader, Desi Train’s patented SECRET method to view a movie with emptiness. A zero state of mind. You can follow either of these three things: (1) Jogging 25 miles and then immediately watching the movie (2) A 90 Minute Bikram Yoga Session, followed by a warm shower and off to the movie (3) 3 hours of rough wild sex (depending on how horny you are) with your mate (mate as in a real person, no hand shaking please), till the point your back snaps out or your mini-me drops on its knees (try imagination), and pleads with you and begs you to stop torturing it anymore.
Since I have a family history of bad knees, I follow the paths of (2) or (3) before watching a movie. Last evening before watching Malamaal Weekly (2) was followed by (3), due to “trying to get to know the blonde” at the Yoga studio.
Bad. Now instead of resting in a zero you are down into the negative. Bad. Very Bad.
Because even though you know Priyadarshan has copied Waking Ned Devine, inspite of the 100 odd reviews that trashed the movie, inspite of your state of mind 5 hours earlier saying that this movie wasn’t worth watching, inspite of all that… combining a (2) and a (3) together now means you end up giving this movie very high points. You enjoy it. You laugh till you fall off your snoring new blonde’s lap and yet you don’t stop.
And then it hits you. Doing (2) and (3) one after the other not only makes your expectations go to zero but they go way past it… minus 10, minus 20 or perhaps more. Not Good. Now you may start liking movies of the trash kind.
So, yes I liked Malaamal Weekly to a large extent. Yes, it at times made me laugh so hard that I fell off my chair. Yes it is loud in parts and sometimes the director seems to drag it to bridge to key parts. But the movie is better product than the other below average one Priyan has shelled out after Hera Pheri.
Yes it’s a flat out copy of Waking Ned Devine. And yes it has the same plot where an entire village comes together to grab the lottery prize money that which should have gone to the village drunkard who’s dead.
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But two things stand out.
One. Priyadarshan after a long time comes out with a product that shows that it NOT TRYING TO CREATE COMEDY atleast for most part. The best way to make one laugh has to be simple and simply “flowing”. To some extent MW achieves that. Unlike Hulchul or Hungama or even Garam Masala, where Priyadarshan was trying too hard to make us laugh, here he just lets it go and flow.
The result: Some hilarious scenes which have the punch. The village gathering at the dead man’s house or the constant jabs they take at each other or the frustrations of Rawal and Puri when every hour they keep adding more people to share the spoils.
Two. The comic chemistry between Paresh Rawal and Om Puri is a revelation. This very very very very seriously needs to be explored further. Someone needs to bring these two again on the comic plate and mix things up, this time, more intensely.
There is not much to say about the rest of the cast. They conveniently follow the tried and tested method of hamming and huffing throughout the journey. And this includes the ever reliable Rajpal Yadav too. On one hand he gives us a Main Meri Patni aur Woh, while on the other… this? You shake your head in disgust.
Overall, this movie could be worth a trip, if you haven’t seen the original, that is. And yes, from now on, doing a (2) and (3) together is a definite no no for me. Perhaps Malamaal Weekly’s 101st review would have trashed it like the rest of the hundred. Somebody is smiling.
C Plus. For a weekend afternoon over Beer, Chips and French fries. Adding a blonde would help too.
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April 19th, 2006 at 11:15 am
I am in a total jobless and having infinite time to idle mode today. Hence, found this trivial typo: the link for “Mein meri patnee wur woh” takes to a ‘page not found’ because there was a quote symbol (”) in the link, and removing that brings me back to this page.
BTW I liked that movie. Yadav was good in that (and ofcourse the actress too). Though he was attempting to gain sympathy on his short stature.
April 19th, 2006 at 11:19 am
- Pavan, Thanks. Link’s been corrected. Why are you jobless? Send me your resume if you are in the USA.
April 19th, 2006 at 12:54 pm
arey nahin thanks, but was in idling mode in univ today (mid-week crisis). Am still a grad slave. Waiting to land in the corporate jungles :)
I appreciate your offer to help. Could I have a raincheck? :)