Hari Puttar, A Comedy Of Terrors

Warner Bros were getting antsy for nothing. Hari Puttar has nothing to do with the Harry Potter films, other than the fact that both have been filmed in England. Hari isn’t a young wizard with a scar zigzagging though his forehead. He’s just a ten-year-old who gets left behind in a large mansion, somewhere on the outskirts of London. Sounds familiar? Yep, it’s got a lot to do with ‘Home Alone’, with Zain Khan doing a desi McCaulay Culkin.

Hari is dumped on by everybody: his elder brother thinks he is a total wimp, his cousins  laugh at his accent; in fact, the whole caboodle thinks he should neither be seen nor heard. His mom (Sarika) is the only one who dotes on her beloved ‘puttar’, but even she forgets him, as the family hares off somewhere, leaving behind our young hero, and his one cousin (Swini) who likes him.

If you remember the first Home Alone flick, you know what happens: the youngsters (Zain, last seen in Chain Kuli Ki Main Kuli, is likeable; Swini, last seen in Cheeni Kum, is not) beat a couple of thieves back, with all their arsenal: dragging them across lawns, throwing smelly liquids whooshing on their heads, shooting sharp pointed objects at various body parts, and so on.

And because it is a Hindi film, it has an item number, fronted by Shamita Shetty. A larger-than-life villain, who has one false eye and a hideous Mumbaiya accent. A couple of hoods called Diesel and Filter (Saurabh in waist-length Rasta curls who lets loose noisy smells from his rear end at regular intervals, and Vijay in florid flowery suit). A scientist who’s working on a secret computer ‘cheep’ (chip). And a script which doesn’t know the meaning of sense, and so full of holes that several large-sized trucks can drive right through.

Who cares, though? Certainly not the six-year-old sitting right ahead, who chortled his way through much the film. Plot to have your tykes whisked off to the film by elder siblings, while you take in that film you’ve been wanting to: that’s what multiplexes are for!

shubhra.gupta@expressindia.com