In this whole process, the guest affects people in positive and negative ways, and while the negative ways are source of comedy and sometimes irritation, the positive ones are probably what the director of the movie intends to show. These positive things that come with the guest sometimes make the best parts of the movie, as they reflect upon what we miss in the city life as we live in nuclear families.

Atithi tum kab jaoge has a small cast that includes the main lead – Paresh Rawal with Ajay Devgn and Konkona Sen Sharma. And while Ajay is good and Konkona even better, it’s Paresh who keeps the movie going with his natural acting. Satish Kaushik and Akhilendra Mishra are good in their small roles and so is Sanjay Mishra in his watchman’s part.

Atithi tum kab jaoge is a small movie of hardly two hours that I don’t have much to say about. The bottom line of the review is that there is not a lot you can expect from the movie but if you live in a nuclear family, that too in a metro, do watch the movie, if only on a DVD. Good chances you might like it, even if it’s not very entertaining and certainly not a perfect film.

Talking of Road, Movie, I’d have to start with expectations. Because of Dev Benegal’s name and Abhay Deol, the movie is riding high on expectations and people who have loved Abhay in most films are wondering what surprise the acting-Deol is bringing them this time. So first thing, I found the movie Overrated, at least rating it over people’s expectations.

SPOILER AHEAD

“Road, Movie” is the story of a businessman’s son. The rising son, Vishnu (Dev?) is told to smell the hair oil and also that it was his future. Vishnu repeats Papa Atma’s dialog cum punch line Atma tel lagaya, sar bhar baal paaya, baaki sab maaya, though he doesn’t want to sell hair oil. Then he gets a chance to drive an uncle’s truck to some strange place on earth and on his way it’s all desert. The desert has a dhaba, a boy working there, problems, mechanic, police, water mafia, and of course, the heroine. There is water too, but with that comes water mafia. The Sardar there is uber-filmy and burns a well just so that all the villagers know that nobody has to touch his things, and also gets so-happy when he is told how to be a ‘mard’ by oiling and combing his hair. Later, he was seen on a Splendor (or Splendor+ or some other model of it) but I didn’t get whether he was still selling ‘Atma tel’ or not.

SPOILER ENDS

In short, in Road, Movie, either you see just the desert road, which happens to make the major part before the interval and then there is the story, which is poori filmy. While Satish Kaushik’s acting is absolutely wonderful, Abhay is fine in his role and the small guy Mohammad Faizal is a superb again. Tanishtha Chatterjee also acts well even though during her first few scenes, I was wondering if she was trying to make an authentic Rajasthani at all with the fluent ‘Khadi Boli’ (say Delhi-West UP) Hindi she was speaking. Also, while I did not get the purpose or the story of the movie anyway, I was wondering if Dev Benegal was a person who worked on intricacies, but stopped doing so when I saw truck owner Uncle’s bald head peeping from inside the cap when outside the cap there were long black hair.

The only positive things about the movie are that it has some great performances, especially of Satish Kaushik who probably has not performed or rather hasn’t got a chance to perform so well in past some time, and other than that looking for something big, the film doesn’t exactly bore you as it shows you the love of director for India and love of India for Cinema – the mutual love and connection of India and Cinema to summarize and expand at the same time.

So my word on Road, Movie: If you are confused, do not go for the movie, buy a DVD later if people suggest you to, and if you WANT to go and watch it for yourself (or have simply bought the tickets), do go, but don’t have much expectations from the movie, maybe you like it then.

PS: Watching some reviews, I feel that maybe Road, Movie was too big for me and I did not really understand it. In case anyone thinks it’s simple and you can make me understand the movie, please do.

The trailer of Atithi tum kab jaoge reminded me of that story right away. Though the story of the film may be different, at least some things look similar. In fact, the story got me a good laugh, and Atithi tum kab jaoge looks like it will be able to make people laugh too. Here is the trailer of the movie.