Cheeni Kum 2007

Cast : Amitabh Batchan, Tabu, Zohra Sehgal, Paresh Rawal

Plot and Storyline:

Yet again Amitabh Batachan proves to be too worthy of an actor and what director has done with him in this film is something that is very different, It is not a very extraordinary character or the acting which i am speaking of but the story of Chenni Kum as such. Budhhadev Gupta ( played by Amitabh batchan) is a 64 year old un married chef in the United Kingdom, he owns his own restaurant in UK and lives alone with his mother. He is a typical chef, one who is very proud of his restaurant and his food. The actual story begins with Neena Verma ( played by Tabu) returns a Hyrabadi Biriyani  back to Budhhadev's kitchen complaining that its too sweet (Hence the name of the movie) and The first meeting ends up in a disagreement. The next day Tabu brings him her version of Hydrabadi Biriyani and the relationship begins to strengthen. What happens to them at the end is the rest of the film.

Almost all of Balki's films have vert unique characters, each one of them is very different even in this film, Amitabh Batchan the protagonist of this Romantic comedy is 64 years old and his mom unlike a typical mother watches wrestling at home and Budhadev comes home and cooks his own meal and goes to sleep each day. Budhadev's only confidant is a 9 year old Cancer patient - he calls her sexy -who lives next door, she becomes his one and only person whom he listens to for love advices. there is not much depth of story in the film as the whole concept of love for a 64 year old is quite difficult to comprehend and this actually pulls the film through. But the film is not short of any elements of a Romantic comedy, there are romantic scenes between Tabu and Amitabh which are much better than any other romantic film

The most comic part of the film starts in the second half when Budhadev and Neena go to get Neena's dad (Mr. Verma) who is actually 4 years younger than Budhadev himself, the way Budhadev tries to get Mr Verma's approval is really comic and each and every time he tries they age difference comes in his way and he fails. It is quite commendable for Director Balki to introduce such a story line and the detail which he gives for each of the characters makes them so convincing.  The basic message of the film is, i guess, Love is timeless but there are some points of time which makes the film so deep. There is a scene near the end when Budhadev calls sexy and asks her some advice about Neena for which she says " Say how do you feel as soon as possible" when Budhadev askes her tom come to india she says " it takes 10 hrs to come there who has that much time , seems like you have a lot of time left " . It is quite brilliant how Balki sets up this scene where a 9 year old calls a 64 year old and tells him he has more time life, very ironic.

Cheeni Kum is a refreshing film, though it has no pace, no big story, It is worth watching for the strikingly different characters and soothing music of Ilayaraja ( who gives us legendary tunes from the past)