Hasee toh phasee
Mujhe bhi maaro, meri beti bilkul
meri jaisi hi toh hai...
Over and above the happy, frothy
well-written, nicely-enacted movie this hasee
toh phasee, directed by Vinil Mathew, is,
there are a few firsts that I totally fell for.
A woman scientist (picture toh waste
hai), suffering from seeming psychological disorders (bola na, waste hai),
working in China (not US, UK or vilayat) on not-yet-successful research on
power generation through high density polymer (really?), steals money from her
father (hawww)...
Really each one of these must be a
first in apna roj ka bollywood. And believe it or not, not one of these
factoids are considered bad or wrong or stupid in the movie.
A Gujarati household with many
daughters (i forget how many) - one simple marriage material, one actress, one
scientist. Full on joint family with eldest uncle having absolute rights over
all decision-making, including slapping and throwing our darling Parineeti out.
The cruelty is not sugar-coated. The disapproval for “this kind” of girl is
made amply clear. And here lies the twist.
Her father, played very
affectionately by Manoj Joshi, has the same weakness for his favourite daughter
that every father would. He accepts her oddities and pranks as a child, but
challenging her at the same time to work on her brilliance. Of course, he
cannot control the situation when it goes out of hand and Parineeti runs away
with her father’s money on her sister’s wedding day. Turns up years later,
incidentally when her second sis is about to marry the hero (oops I hadn’t
mentioned him till now!), the lovely understated Siddharth Malhotra (yeah
forgive him that student of the year movie please). Again to steal.
She is fidgety, annoying, never
blinks, pops pills, speaks in a strange manner and is intelligent. Also trying,
unsuccessfully, to not be emotional. Oh and also loves to eat, among other
things Vada Pao!!! But above all, utterly simple and almost innocent, the kind
of innocence that comes from practising pure science for decades?
The hero is fumbling businessman
caught between trying to do things right, fast and also make lots of money. He
borrows, he fails and has little self-respect or pride when it comes to
borrowing and failing yet again. Again no one judges him for his mistakes,
except the father-in-law of course with some nice acid remarks every now and
then. Ha!
One thing leads to another and hero
and Parineeti fall in love and everything is okay in the end, when they leave
India so that she can complete her research.
But before that there are a few scenes
that give a glimpse of work and real emotion that has gone into writing this
film.
There are many funny scenes but the
one I love is Siddharth’s police daddy accusing her of eating toothpaste (sugar
rush) and stealing jewellery. The scene unfolds so naturally and exactly as per
how each character would behave. The killer line comes as an ode to CID, when
the comic side kick goes, “ACP Pradyumna bhi yahi kehta hai.” Parineeti tops it
with “Daya suspect ka bag leke aao!” and the police daddy is left fuming, “kaun
hai yeh ACP Pradyumna, kis batch ka hai!!!” Not to mention the dressing down he
gets from his wife Neena Kulkarni, as - again - would happen in real life if
you are married for 20, 30 years!
When Parineeti is locked in a room
while the rest of the family is enjoying some wedding rituals, she ends up urinating
in her ghagra because of the medicines she keeps on popping (remember
psychological problems). When Siddharth finds her, nothing is said, and he just
hugs her. It seems as if he realises how much he loves her and how lonely and
neglected she has been. This is what would happen in real life if the girl you
love is not only hot and happening but also a real human being.
And the last one, perhaps the best
one too… When Manoj Joshi declares that Parineeti is what she is because of
him. Before we can wonder if he is about criticise, he says if he hadn’t been
what he was (means off the beaten track type) they would still be running a
tiny shop in Surat. In one stroke he upholds a life of risk, experiment,
enterprise and hard work. For men and women. He completes it with emphasising
that she has equal rights over their wealth as everyone else. “Mujhe bhi maaro,
meri beti bilkul meri jaisi hi toh hai...”
There is nothing extraordinary about
the music but I often find myself humming zehnaseeb…
What I don’t know is this – why is
it called hasee toh phasee?
.....
