Imagine spending an evening with a man who is the verbal equivalent of Mr.Bean. That is essentially the one-liner of the film Bheja Fry. In the film, Vinay Pathak plays Bharat Bhushan, an Income Tax Officer with a passion for Hindi films and a penchant for blurting out the wrong thing at the wrong time. The hilarious events of a single night – when Music Producer Ranjit Thadani — Rajat Kapoor finds that an encounter with Bharat Bhooshan screws his life out of shape. A cameo by Ranvir Shourey, as Bharat Bhushan’s IT colleague Asif, is brilliant. If you are a technophile then this may not be the best film for you. Over 95% of the film is in a single location. And it works very well. Thankfully, neither the camera movements nor the lighting distracted attention from the incredibly funny dialogue script. Rajat Kapoor as the ‘intelligent’ music producer – who is a complete piece of shit — is very good. Understated but good. How this sophisticated urban SEC A1 gets his life put out of joint by the complete Desi IT officer – Vinay Phatak, as Bharat Bhushan – pat down to safari suit and hair with middle parting – is the crux of the story. I am told that it is a rip off, oops, tribute, to a French Film. If it is so, it is a good rip off. If not, then kudos to those whose idea it was. A short, tight film that keeps you laughing. Worth the price of entry. Go see it.
A PoV
Harini Calamur's Writings
Bheja Fry was fun. Especially cos I watched with friends. Rithika was in it for 2-3 frames! She was an AD on the film. She got 4 credits! Bheja Fry was fun, but i went in expecting it wud be funnier. Mixed Doubles in comparison was a laugh riot for me. Vinay Pathak is always awesome. Found Rajat Kapoor’s ungrateful personality almost unreal. Are there such people? If they r, they shud be exterminated. It took them some balls to show Ranvir, who plays a muslim supporting Pakistan in the cricket match, no?
I watched this 1998 film called La Diner de cons (the dinner game) recommended by my French friends as they wanted me to appreciate quintessentially French humour, which is representative of their contemporary culture. And this was two weeks after I had watched Bheja fry which I enjoyed so much. I was apalled at how the script of bheja fry was a total rip-off from La Diner de cons. Even some of the dialogues were a direct translation from French. And this is NOT the first time that I´m being apalled. I´m now forced to change my view of the contemporary indie films being creative; somewhere down the line, it must be a rip-off from some foreign film nobody´s heard of. Atleast it would´ve been mature enough for the bheja fry team to “acknowledge” the source or the inspiration of the story. We don´t want to be branded as a bunch of educated thugs, do we?
hi avishek
i have since long stopped getting outraged at such blatant rip offs….
in fact… i have almost stopped watching hindi films… my first question when someone asks me to watch a film is what is it based on 🙂