Bombay to Bangkok

If your plot is completely cuckoo, then your treatment has to be spot on. Nagesh Kukunoor setting a fast-talking Mumbai ka chhora loose upon Bangkok massage parlours, and unsuspecting Thai damsels, should have resulted in unbridled merriment. But Bombay To Bangkok8217;s is a drag, offering little drama or excitement.

Shankar Shreyas nicks a bag full of cash from 8216;Mumbai8217;s most fearsome don8217; Khan Seth Naseer, and finds himself flying out to Thailand in a fake white coat, with a bunch of thugs hotfooting after him. Soon, he is to be found peering at wrinkly nether regions of dirty old men don8217;t ask, dispensing Viagra to whoops of joy from the selfsame individuals please don8217;t and cooking up a steaming batch of desi khana he8217;s not a doc, he8217;s a cook, see?. This is when he is not searching for his precious loot, and losing his heart to the lovely Jasmine Lena, and trying to keep his head above the meandering script.

Kukonoor8217;s keen eye for drollery, his true strength, seems to have gone missing. There are enough oddballs in the movie to keep the laughs coming. An overweight, jolly Sardar Manmeet Singh, translator of Shankar8217;s love-lorn ramblings, a suspicious salwaar-kameez clad psychiatrist who suspects Shankar is not who he is we could have told you that, missy, and a Mumbai bhai with a rapper8217;s soul Vijay Maurya , complete with the rings, gold chains, and the body piercings, and a troubled childhood. But the parts don8217;t add up to the whole.

Maurya is a hoot, making you wish there was more of him. Naseer comes on as if he8217;d rather be anywhere else, even in his one scene, where he looks nothing like a menacing don. What, this is quid pro for Iqbal? The eminently watchable Shreyas needed more able support: he8217;s all over the place, making you wish there was less of him. The Thai debutant swings nicely between her lady of the night, and medical volunteer by day role, but is done in by the director8217;s insistence on playing out the tag-line 8212; 8216;we are same same but different8217;.

So is the movie.