Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?

Director: Ashwani Dhir

Rating: **

We’ve all suffered guests who outstay their welcome. But when Ashwani Dhir tries to make a two-hour comedy out of a one-line situation,he runs into a problem that a three- member family has no answers to : there are not enough characters to spread the laughs over,not even when the aforementioned ‘atithi’ is the redoubtable Paresh Rawal.

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Puneet ( Devgn) is a script-writer hard-pressed for imagination and time. His brains get further fried when an old ‘chachaji’ ( Rawal) arrives from the village,claiming close ties with Puneet’s family. He settles down like he’s never going to leave,ousting Puneet and wife Munmun ( Sen Sharma) from their bedroom,using up all Munmun’s fragrant soaps,and breaking into noisy wind whenever the script demands it,which it does every few minutes,requiring poor Munmun’s room fresheners to be in constant use.

But there’s nothing fresh about Dhir’s film,which employs tired characters ( Satish Kaushik playing a bejeweled film producer who keeps saying ‘jai mata di’,for instance),and even more tiresome clichés. There’s not much you can do with a plot which uses a string of noisy farts as a leit-motif,not even a couple who tries to be lived-in : both Devgn and Sen Sharma pull off being married,with an offspring,by bickering well. But neither is given enough to do,the whole focus being Rawal,who is kept very busy not being as funny as he can be. Misplaced emotion is stuffed in here and there,derailing the comic momentum.

The best part about ‘Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge’ is that it doesn’t have any lewd jokes,so children can blamelessly be taken along,if you want to settle on a ‘clean comedy’ this weekend. Don’t forget to hold your nose,though.

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com