Considering Bhansali’s box office entertainers like Khamoshi, Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, Black, and Guzaarish, one is left to wonder what made Bhansali produce My Friend Pinto, a movie infested with loopholes – from screenplay to execution, characterization, dialogue delivery and plot.[break]
After the demise of his mother, life loses all its meaning for a Goan priest Michael Pinto (Prateik Babbar). Now in the entire world Pinto has nobody else to lean on but Sameer (Arjun Mathur), his long-lost friend living in Mumbai.
However, for Sameer, who cannot “recall more than 30 friends in a minute and has hundreds of friends on his Facebook,” Pinto does not even exist anymore.
Nonetheless, Pinto who has never missed writing letters to Sameer, arrives in Mumbai with the belief that he can totally rely on his childhood friend.
Thereafter, it’s all about a simpleton Goan Pinto’s one night of mad adventure in the hustle and bustle of Mumbai on a New Year’s Eve.
This certainly is not the first Bollywood movie which explores Mumbai by night. Even before Bollywood was introduced, Indian films like Khwaja Ahmed Abbas’ Bambai Raatki Bahon Mein and Sudhir Mishra’s Ish Raatki Subhan Nahin have fascinated filmgoers with the untold stories of Bombay, now Mumbai.
It is good to sometimes think beyond the box and go experimental. Producer of the movie Sanjay Leela Bhansali has done the same. From dark and intense subjects, which made him popular in the industry, he takes up a light entertainer through My Friend Pinto.
However, Bhansali avoids the reality that comedy is a tricky territory that requires aptness, practice, finesse and timing. This is where My Friend Pinto wanes badly.
Debutant director Raaghav Dar tries too hard to make this film look like a pure comedy-emotional movie. No matter how hard the director tries to make the actor, who plays the protagonist look like a cross between Charlie Chaplin and Raj Kapoor, all his exercises end up in vain.
Forget about the initial plot of the movie where Pinto comes to Mumbai to spend some time with his long lost friend, he finds everything unusual, even a Vada Pao is an alien dish to him. Nothing is funny till here.
Then comes the subplots which are as mishmashed as the rest of the movie. A don trying to murder his boss; the don’s main boss’s desire to gift his lover a puppy;. the don’s girlfriend getting intoxicated because she starts suspecting him and one of the characters winning the game of betting when he lets his heart take over his mind, that too after Pinto teaches him.
The question here is where do you laugh and why would you even? Nothing actually tickles your funny bone in this botched up attempt of comedy flick.
The main problem in the movie is it has too many characters to deal with and none of them are given a right screen space. Most of the characters are intolerably loud and stupidly funny. The characters are not to be blamed but the director is to be for not handling them well.
Kalki Koechlin, despite being a promising actress, gets no screen space and in her 20-minute appearance, her character is underdeveloped in the movie.
Though Prateik Babbar gives his best from his side, the character he potrays hasn’t been properly developed. How can a character who initially was said to be “a brand ambassador of bad luck” suddenly turns into a lucky charm to everyone? Also, not to miss is Pinto, who in the movie wants to become “a real priest” is seen dancing with a sexy lady in the rains, accepting a peck on a cheek and having all the goose bumps.
Director Dar has taken this movie too lightly. All in all, while the movie initially tries to make you laugh, it ends you up flustered.
Screening at QFX Cinemas
(The writer is Program Officer at Indian Cultural Centre.)
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