Subhash K Jha speaks about Mere Baap Pehle Aap 
By Subhash K. Jha, June 14, 2008 - 11:11 IST
At last a Priyadarshan comedy that warms the cockles of the heart even as it makes you cackle in glee.
Mere Baap Pehle Aap (MBPA) is a deftly-scripted piece of quirky and cryptic concoction on role reversal. And if you take away all the humbug and fringe characters(the number of which has been drastically reduced by the prolific Priyan this time) is taken away , at the core of this cool comedy is a father-son relationship where the father is often caught behaving like a truant child.
Paresh Rawal's guilt stricken expressions and Akshaye's finger-wagging exasperation are mixed on a comic cock-and-bull-tale.
Hats and hiccups off to Manisha Korde's wildly witty words that colonize the characters' comic world without crowding them in crudity.
Breathe easy. There are no risqué jokes. No double-meaning jokes and no vulgar top-shots of women in cleaveage -and -thigh revealing positions (some things are breast left unsaid).
Yup, this is Priyan's recognizable domain. Saaf-suthri and clever in parts it makes you forgive all the excesses of his recent films like Bhool Bhulaiya, Bhagam Bhaag and Malaamal Weekly where the characters were constantly in a state of epileptic distress.
In MBPA we see some restrain and subtlety in the narration. And the locales are so luscious at times, the sense of compulsive claustrophobia that crowds the cult of the comic in Hindi cinema is firmly and refreshingly averted.
Besides the dialogues and the exquisite locales brought to vivacious life by Piyush Shah's camera and Sabu Cyril's art work which suggest an endearing link betweem our cultural heritage and the rituals off laughter.The Kerala sequences are adorably quaint. Throughout the lengthy story of a father and son finding marital bliss at about the same time we are caught in spaces that are filled but not over brimming. Like his earlier films Priyan's people this time go from laughter to a social message with a virile fluency.
Does a middleaged man have the right to seek a companion when he has a marriageable child?
Ironically in the recent Cheeni Kum Paresh had opposed a marriage between his screen daughter and Amitabh Bachchan.
Rawal goes to the receiving - end of social taboos without missing beats. What a fine actor! After watching him waste himself in the sterile environment of the uprooted comedies in recent times, Paresh comes into his own as the surly childlike baap who keeps getting into embarrassing positions for no fault of his.
If Rawal sparkles it's because he has a screen son who shines down on the plot with immense confidence. Akshaye Khanna's comic timing and his little nuances and gestures in scenes that require him to basically play it straight, bring in a forceful humour to a film that may otherwise have ended up looking a little limp and unmoored.
The rest of the cast barring the brazenly over-pitched Genelia, give winsome comic performances. It's a surprise to see the beautiful Shobana show up as the spinster that widower Paresh Rawal wants to marry.
The wedding song and dance are almost exquisite. This touch of the quasi-classical, also evident in the closing interlude of Priyan's Bhool Bhulaiya, gives the comedy a touch of refreshing grace.
Interestingly Mohan Joshi, that fine actor and a Priyadarshan regular, gives a completely non-comic performance. And Archana Puransingh as a brassy lady cop once again displays a penchant for parody.
Om Puri as a leery paunchy aging bachelor is appropriately grotesque. But whether it was the character or the performance that made me squirm, I couldn't tell.
But the film works mainly because Paresh and Khanna look so delightfully compatible as a father and son who have lived so closely together they don't know which is which.
Another asset Ranjot Barot's background music which is surprisingly tender-and-strong in fits and starts.
Closing thoughts. Welcome home, Priyadarshan
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"It's my last remake" - Priyadarshan
