Subhash K. Jha speaks about Golmaal Returns

Subhash K. Jha speaks about Sorry Bhai

If Sorry Bhai starred Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra and John Abraham, the love triangle would be located in sizzling Brazil. What we get is the calm blue seas of Mauritius where Sanjay Suri and Sharman Joshi vie for Chitrangda's attention with a laidback stay-calm stay-cool kind of urbane chic that often masquerades as a mirror of contemporary mores in today's cinema. Happily, Sorry Bhai has plenty of genuine moments of emotional 'ouch'-burst. This isn't a film about confrontational relationships. The characters prefer to keep it nice and peaceful on the surface, no matter what the turmoil inside....just like the blue oceans and white sands of Mauritius. Love may or may not mean having to say you're sorry. But Sharman Joshi who plays the kid-brother, who whisks away his Bhai's bride-to-be in a tumultuous romance, says sorry so many times you wonder whom he's trying to convince...the brother or his conscience. Or could it be us, watching this pleasant mild but finally intensity-free romantic comedy set in the mollifying splendour of Mauritius, whom Sharman's sorry state of 'affair' is trying to convince? In one vital sequence, Sharman makes lingering love to his Bhabhi-to-be in the trial room while trying out a wedding suit. Waiting outside the Bridegroom 'Bhaiyya' chuckles, "I'm sure she's making him try out something he has never tried before." Ahem ahem to that. Wicked spurts of humour seem oddly intrusive in this drama of the under-driven. The narration's mood swings from delicious satire to barbed rhetorics....Ma-in-law-to-be Shabana Azmi's ar-son-ic exchanges with her future daughter-in-law could set the azure Mauritian waters on fire, if only they weren't so funny. Sorry Bhai is a film that requires a number of mood changes. In its two hours of mellow playing-time it packs in a whole crises-crossing kaleidoscope of family ties and accompanying emotions ranging from intense motherly possessiveness to authentic bhai-giri. Not all the mood and time transitions are achieved with fluency. Some moments between pairs of characters just don't go far enough to reach into the inner recesses of the heart. Indeed the best moment in the film is the one where the sobbing sibling rests his head on his Bhai's lap to express sorrow for stealing away his fiancÃ©e. But then there's a difference between taking your brother's favourite pen to scribble your limericks and stealing his bride. Sorry Bhai swims languorously in a terrain that covers the thumb-sucking selfishness of childhood as well as the sexual friction within a family where a beautiful woman appears as a bone of contention. And what a woman! Chitrangda looking toned and chiseled, playing the spunky woman who wants to break free from a stagnant long-lasting relationship to court life on the fast lane brings in the right flavours of chocolate-and-chutzpah into the tranquil goings-on. Onir keeps the family drama sweet and simple, when he focuses on one-on-ones within the family circle he is in his element. But then he attempts the magic surrealism of Laura Esquivel and Gabriel Farcia-Marquez and the narration gets too ambitious for the mellow-drama's own good. In the film there's a dog that wants to fly. Two sons who believe their mother would die if they swear wrongly by her name. And a trial room for trying on clothes for fashion which becomes the venue for the kid-brother and his Bhaiyya's fiancÃ©e's pent-up passion. There're references to Casablanca and Dharmendra's films. But Onir's film is as original as it can get. We won't have another film for a long time where the mom tells her younger son to live in with her elder's son's fiancee. Shabana in the mother's role is a bit of a disappointment. We can see her trying to add layers to a rather sketchily written role, somewhat like making love in the aforementioned trial room. The crew cruises the calm characters and their location with underplayed expertise. Mauritius looks more fragile than passionate, more romantic than libidinous. Boman Irani as her husband is far more relaxed. Trust this astonishing actor to always add little-little things to his role when no one is looking. As for the central performances, Chitrangda makes a likable comeback except when she's too busy putting her best profile forward to the camera. And it's hard for us to believe that Sharman Joshi is supposed to play a guy with such irresistible charm that he can sweep the far-from-blushing-bride off her feet and seize her from his brother. Wonders never do seize.
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