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Cheeni Kum |
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| Movie: | Cheeni Kum |
| Director: | R Balakrishnan |
| Start Cast: |
Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Paresh Rawal and Zohra Sehgal |
| Our Rating: |
**** |
| Review By: | Warren Jonathan |
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 Cheeni Kum’ features Amitabh Bachchan in yet another brilliant performance, of his glittering career. The ‘Big B’ entertains viewers with his sarcastic humour as well as emotional drama. The film does not pretend to be a laugh riot, but tells the tale of age difference in lave and marriage with witty sarcasm. It plots a winding course with a bittersweet tale of romance between a 64-year-old man Buddhadev, played by Bachchan and a 34 year-old woman Neena, played by Tabu. Buddhadev is the head chef and the owner of the best Indian restaurant in London. His only passion in life is cooking and e takes pride in his job. According to him cooking is one of the ‘finest artistry skills in the world.’ Buddhadev’s reputation is challenged when a customer disapproves of the restaurant’s specialty, ‘Hyderabadi Zafrani Pulao’. The customer is Neena (Tabu), a tourist from India. |
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 The acidic chef acts haughty with Neena and she walks out of the restaurant. Later, she makes Buddhadev realize his mistake. Buddhadev feels an apology but due his ego it gets difficult for him to say “I’m Sorry”. This is a start of a bittersweet acquaintance between the two, which soon transforms into mutual attraction. At home, Buddhadev has a ninety-year-old mother played by Zohra Sehgal who keeps asking him to join a gym. In his neighborhood lives a little girl called Sexy played by Swini Khara, who suffers from blood cancer. Sexy is Buddhadev’s best friend and is a confidant child and She even offers him advice whenever he seems confused. Paresh Rawal plays Neena’s 58-year-old diabetic father with a conservative mindset who is unwilling to accept a man as old as Buddhadev as Neena’s suitor.
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 Director R Balakrishnan has set the bar high in his directorial debut. He keeps Amitabh Bachchan the driving force of the story and keeps sentimentality out. Mr. Bachchan is touching a new height of charisma at his age and this time of his life is indeed a new morning of his career. In the movie Amitabh sports a new look and in which he looks fabulous, delivering a breezy, and convincing performance as the scathing chef. Tabu comes up with a brilliant act. Paresh Rawal however, has not delivered a performance near his best. In his defence, his role has been written in a way that it offers little scope for comedy. Paresh Rawal, the king of comedy has hardly any comic lines to regale the audience.
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| The high point of the film is its screenplay, filled with witticism, and the warm and pleasing relationships, that the director succeeds in building. Perhaps the only weak link in the romantic drama seems to be Paresh Rawal, Tabu's conservative father who refuses to accept the romance between Buddhadev and his daughter. The lowest point in the film is when dad Paresh Rawal goes on a silly satyagraha to drive home his protest concerning the marriage of his daughter and Budhadev. Ilayaraja, a south Indian music composer has composed the music. The reaction towards the music album is quite positive with the music lovers. There is just one complaint that some of the tunes in the movie are readaptions of the original Tamil music, which has been modernized into Hindi. The maestro has been acclaimed for his effort, though certain sections of his fan base complain that Ilayaraja should have composed some more tunes for the movie.
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