Movie Review Mere Dad Ki Maruti: Post interval, plot catches speed

Cast: Saqib Saleem, Ram Kapoor, Prabal Panjabi, Rhea Chakraborty, Ravi Kissen

Director: Ashima Chibber

IE Rating: ** 1/2

A dulhan getting jiggy on her own sangeet night? It's been known to happen. Especially when the bride belongs to a typical Punjabbi (double b, emphasis mine) family full of boister and cheer.

In a delicious sequence from Mere Dad Ki Maruti, we are presented with a bride doing a fully-clothed shimmy which is just risqué enough to cause the following: the guests slack-jawed, the groom trying to hide his face, the bride's brother gulping a little, and the bride's mummyji beaming with pride at the near-scandalous moves.

This gaana-bajaana encompasses without saying a word, what the movie takes nearly two too-long hours to say. That Punjabbis are hearty and full of heart is an old Hindi movie theme.

That the Khullars of Chandigarh, headed by the rotund papaji (Ram Kapoor), are so intent on making their daughter's doli go off smoothly that they intend gifting their son-in-law a fully-loaded brand new Maruti (or, to give it the right intonation, Marooti, in which the 'a' is hushed, and the 'u' is not at all subtle) car.

That the sonny boy Khullar, also known as Sameer (Saqib Saleem), in order to impress soni kudi Jasleen ( Chakraborty) hooks off with said gaddi, and promptly falls into a series of misadventures, with his pal (Panjabi). And that in the end, everyone is very happy and jolly.

I sat through the first half looking for something to surprise me.

The boys are too standard-Punjabbi-mundas full of youthspeak (chal geda maar ke aate hain has much more meaning than the staid let's go for a drive), the girl (Rhea Chakraborty) too reminiscent of Bollywood's smart-mouthed gals, and their escapades aren't startlingly new either.

... contd.

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