CAST: Amitabh Bachchan, Anupam Kher, Boman Irani, Danny Denzongpa, Parineeti Chopra, Neena Gupta, Sarika, Sheen Dass, Nafisa Ali Sodhi
DIRECTED BY: Sooraj Barjatya
Finally a movie that takes care of the generational identity without making a huge song and dance about it, Sooraj Barjatya’s Uunchai is a warm story with a lot of laughter and tears and definitely does not sermonize the relationships.
Flawed and real, four friends Bhupen ( Danny Denzongpa), Javed ( Boman Irani) , Om ( Anupam Kher) and Amit ( Amitabh Bachchan) are thick as thieves, yet so different from each other that you would wonder what keeps them together. Their deep friendship of over several decades is embellished by differences of opinion, fights, fun, schemes and a lot of warm and fuzzy moments. What underlines the relationship between these four is a lot of honesty and that comes through as a trigger and a hook for the rest of the story.
Barjatya and co-writer Abhishek Dixit create a familiar universe of Rajshree where there are no villains but just a lot of people with flaws.
The humorous situations, like the extra effort made to placate Javed’s wife Shabana ( Neena Gupta ) who is annoyed because her husband has dared to speak to another woman ( Sarika). The screenplay is full of situations that we all have lived through, before the world became a smart place and social media allowed people to live in a parallel universe.
Anupam Kher plays the grumpy Om, who is stuck in his past, with utmost conviction. Boman Irani gets the pulse of Javed, a businessman whose life is controlled by his wife Sabina.
Bachchan is comfortable with his Sholay style comedy and we loved that about the movie. The most amazing thing about this movie was to watch all these veteran actors together, the ever elegant Danny Denzongpa who looks just as good even when green screened in.
When Bhupen dies, he leaves for the friends tickets to a trek to the Everest Base Camp. The friends decide to undertake the expedition and spread their friends ashes at the place he loved the most ( the peak- they call it the beautiful lady). As they drive from Delhi to Kathmandu, life happens to them and they come to know a lot about each other, their lives,
We love Parineeti and she has a significant presence in the movie as the guide to the group that is trekking to the Base camp, a part of which are the four older people, the three friends of Bhupen and his childhood sweetheart Mala, for whom he remained single his entire life.
The music is passable, with a couple of hummable tunes. The cinematography is fabulous especially the shots in the Himalayas are breathtaking.
Though the lyrics and Music is by Amit Trivedi and Irshad Kamil, Anand Bakshi’s Ye Jeevan Hai which was composed by Laxmikant Pyarelal for Rajshri Production’s Piya Ka Ghar in 1972 remains the most hummable tune in the movie.
Overall, a nice flick that fits the genre of family entertainment well and a makes way for a new generation of Rajshree storytelling.
