Shammi and Priyanka, played by newcomer Dev Goel and semi-newcomer Adaah Sharma, are chaddi-buddies. To prove it, he even flashes his chaddi in her face. Thankfully, he isn't wearing it when this occurs.
This is one of the many irreverent scenes showing the couple's comfort level that keeps recurring with discomforting frequency in the film with the potential to make us lough out aloud. Alas, the laughter is often waylaid.
The film comes from a banner that has given mainstream Hindi cinema such blockbusters in the past as 'Dus Lakh' and 'Ek Phool Do Maali'. Devendra Geol, who made these successful films is much respected. And when his grandson Dev Goel makes his acting debut in a film directed by Devendra Giel's son Jyotin, we expect something special to happen.
"Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke" doesn't quite deliver the kind of juicy punch-filled material that would showcase the Goel scion's talents. What we see here is a film that tries very hard to be "young" (read: plenty of below-the-hip jokes, and conversations preambled by 'Hey Dude', 'Check This out' and 'Waddever'). It also in the same bustling breath tries to pay a backhanded homage to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's love classic 'Hum...Dil De Chuke Sanam'.
Ambitious, yes. But not quite up to the task.
In the midst of trying to be hip and cool and attempting to salute a classic, the narration packs in two hours of crazy out-of-control adventures that take our protagonists through a ziz-zag of zonked-out adventures that involve a notorious computer hacker on the prowl, a gorilla, who chases our hero while he is relieving himself in the jungles, suitors dressed in Spiderman suits, a goon, and five different roles for Chunky Pandey.
Playing a Parsi employer, a Sikh dhaba owner and so on and so forth, Chunky certainly seems to have fun.
It's Juhi Chawla's cameo as a paan-chewing Lucknowi doctor trying to explain herself to a South Indian nurse that brings the house down. Wish the rest of the film conveyed the same sparkle.
"Hum Hai Raahi Car Ke" is a fun-filled road movie zestfully driven by the director, but alas the road is littered with too many sleeping dogs. Dev Goel makes a confident debut. Hopefully, he will be provided with better material next time. Maybe a remake of 'Dus Lakh' upgraded to '100 Crore'?
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