Movie Review: Chalo Dilli

Starring: Lara Dutta, Vinay Pathak
Director: Shashant Shah
Original Release Date: April 29, 2011

*No Spoilers*

For me, Chalo Dilli was the surprise of the season. I wasn't expecting much from what seemed to be unexciting actors and a subpar storyline but what resulted was a light-hearted entertainer that kept the viewer fully engaged throughout.

Chalo Dilli revolves around hi-shi advertising executive Mihika Banerjee's (Lara) misfortunes as she tries to get to Delhi after a rerouted flight. She meets the annoying yet well-intentioned Manu Gupta (Vinay) who ends up becoming her "chipku" counterpart throughout the journey. What ensues is various mishaps putting Mihika in uncomfortable situations, unrealistic situations, and plain unfortunate events.

Lara's character, Mihika, didn't require much--it's nothing new to play an uptight, high class, modern woman. Somehow, Lara still manages to make the character likeable by delivering a favorable performance. Vinay truly shines in his performance. His comic timing was almost perfect causing multiple laugh out loud moments. The two were able to carry the entire film almost solely on their shoulders, which is a great feat. It was also fun to see Akshay Kumar in a small cameo.

The music was simply okay. The title track is actually quite catchy. Yana Gupta's item song "Laila O Laila" was a big disappointment. I really enjoyed the audio of the song (it grew on me after a while) and was excited to see the picturization of the song. Even for an item song, it was just trashy. Yana simply shook her goods and stripped (Seriously, Zeenat? You're offended by "Mit Jaaye Gham" but not this?). On top of that, a significant amount of the song was chopped off. Bad move for an item song.

For a comedy, Chalo Dilli was actually funny--which is refreshing. It did drag on for a bit (the portion with the bad guys and the jeep seemed unnecessary) but was overall able maintain it's comic pace. The movie also did a nice job of wrapping up literally every character's story.

Within the goofiness of the film was also a lesson in appreciating both rural and urban surroundings and stopping to enjoy the small joys in life. Chalo Dilli is a small gem hidden within a slew of mainstream blockbusters. Check it out if you're in the mood to be entertained by a simple, but sweet film.

Final Verdict: 8/10