Aloo Chat:Old wine in new bottle

Cast: Aftab Shivdasani, Aamna Shariff, Linda Arsenio, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Manoj Pahwa, Dolly Ahluwalia, Meenakshi,Sanjay Mishra

Producer: Anuj Saxena, A. P. Parigi, Gary S

Director: Robby Grewal

Music Director: Samirrudin, Rdb

The movie Aloo chat has all the ingredients of a perfect masala movie. Directed by Robby Grewal, the movie offers a liberal dose of fun and laughter, but at the same time leaves a pertinent question regarding discrimination of people on the basis of caste and creed.

The film, set in Delhi, has all the trappings of a middle class Punjabi household. Nikhil (played by Aftab Shivdasani) belongs to an orthodox Punjabi family. He falls in love with a Muslim girl Aamna (played by Aamna Shariff — Madhuri Dixit of the small screen) while studying in US. On his vacation back home, Nikhil is in a fix about how to disclose the truth to his family of having fallen in love with a Muslim girl.

His family comprises a ‘generation gap’ father, Purshottam (played by the seasoned actor Kulbhushan Kharbanda), his typical housewife mom Seeto (played by Meenakshi), a grandma “Beeji” (played by Dolly Ahluwalia) and an overenthusiastic uncle Chaddami (played by Sanjay Mishra).

Nikhil, finally seeks help from his father’s best friend Hakim (played by Manoj Pahwa), a sexologist by profession. Hakim devises a smart plan with the help of an American girl Nikki’s (played by Linda).

Director Robby Grewal deserves a huge applause for his treatment of the subject and his narrative structure. Even though the subject is not novel, he has treated it in a witty manner. As a reason, the film is devoid of the Bollywood melodrama. The witty one-liners in the movie make it interesting from the first till the last frame. Some subtle messages are nicely incorporated within the film.

The actors in the film have also suited their characters perfectly well. Aftab is successful in showing his natural flair for comedy. A big name on the Indian television, Aamna Shariff is looking very beautiful in the movie and manages to pull off her character well. Even though Kulbhushan Kharbanda plays a serious character, sometimes even his expressions have you in splits.