Mayank Shekhar review: Chalo Dilli

"Chape" is a peculiar Hindi slang for a pesky, over-friendly fellow. Pathak, a fine actor, has unfortunately made a living out of playing just that role (Bheja Fry onwards). Small town is Bollywood’s new Switzerland. We're in the boondocks hence. Mayank Shekhar writes.

Silly!

Chalo Dilli
Director: Shashant Shah
Actors: Lara Dutta, Vinay Pathak
Rating: *1/2

Chape is a peculiar Hindi slang for a pesky, over-friendly fellow. Pathak, a fine actor, has unfortunately made a living out of playing just that role (Bheja Fry onwards). Small town is Bollywood’s new Switzerland. We're in the boondocks hence.

Hot woman (Dutta) in a short-ish skirt that Mr Pathak meets on this unplanned road-trip through North India's badlands - encountering dacoits, midnight dhabas -- makes for fine certificate for women’s undoubted safety in the region. She’s attacked once, for a laptop.

Otherwise, everything that can go wrong over a two-hour Mumbai-Delhi flight is stretched into a two-hour film: airline diversion, cab breakdown, ticketless train travel, curfew….

Two strangers on such a journey can make for one too many films: from Mr And Mrs Iyer, on the riots, to Jab We Met, a romance. This one falls into neither. It’s just banal, belaboured, contrived concoction that’s just not funny; certainly not fun.

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