Patiala House (Hindi)
Release Date:
February 11, 2011At Patiala House lives the Kahlon family ruled by Bauji.They follow his diktats as he tries to hold onto his “Indian values†in the land of the “gorasâ€. The younger generation at the Patiala House wants to assert themselves and follow their dreams but are held back by their respect and love for Bauji and the shining example of Bauji’s eldest son, Parghat Singh Kahlon aka Gattu. Gattu gave up his dream at the altar of Bauji’s biases.
His reward: For the last 17 years he has been working in a corner store.
Will Bauji loosen his hold and let the youngsters find their own dreams instead of following his?
Will Gattu get a second chance to live his life?
What’s more important: family or dreams?
And why must we choose one or the other?
The more number of non-engineers/CAs/MBAs/doctors I meet, the more I hear, "oh I did my engineering for my parents, but this is (films/writing/dancing) where my heart lies. We have had many movies that comment on our inept system and control-freak older generation, they usually become a tad too dark. Patiala House keeps the balance towards being light. But completely messes up the good, strong start that it gives itself by going the clichéd route.
Even if you are keen, wait up for the DVD/TV release.
Devastated and heartbroken at the shattering news of Kaali playing for England’s cricket team, Bauji (Rishi Kapoor) of ‘Patiala House’ decides to take the entire family out for the screening of the latest release from his own country India – ‘Yeh Saali Zindagi’.
Patiala House scores that cheeky single primarily because one approaches it with zilch expectations, given the recent outings of its helmsman and leading star. But cheeky singles are just that…cheeky singles, and it takes more than that to win a match, even if you have cheerleaders belting out Lauung da lashkara well after the match is over.
An over-bearing patriarch and his over-wrought Punjabi family; put these 2 together with some drama-shama (because they are Punjabi, and Punjabis – they are like that only!) in the same film, situate the film in London and what do you get ? Why, Patiala House ofcourse . . .
Old wine in a new bottle. The whole Bollywood redefined rhetoric comes to naught with films like these. PH offers a dry script with a tediously commonplace screenplay. The first few scenes (that capture the rift between the Sikhs and the English), set the mood of the film. Akshay Kumar is completely in the character and you want to believe he's going through it all.
But after a point, he appears as miserable and lifeless as one of those Ekta Kapoor characters who's lost all hope and only exists to live for others. You almost want to reach out to him and tell him ENOUGH. Dimple Kapadia (playing Akshay's mother) is as good as furniture in the house.
You sit there out-guessing every dialogue, waiting for something less predictable to happen. (Anushka's "Do what you're born to do" with exclamatory expressions works as good as Ekta Kapoor's trademark camera effects ;). Anushka repeats her Band Baaja....'s cutesy, adorable act. But one more time I see her doing that I'll be bored.
It's sure to do well in Punjab and our Sardarjis in K for Caneda are going to lov it. For me, the only good part about the film was Shafqat Amanat Ali's song kyu main jagoon which plays in the background on and off.
Repeat Value - If you've endured it once, it's more than a favour to Nikhil Advani!
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