Quickie review: Dhoondte Reh Jaoge

This 2009 comedy caper is a Bollywood spin on The Producers, filled with inside-industry gags and some loud, some subtler comedy. Raj Chopra (Paresh Rawal) is producer of steady flops, desperate to get Aryan Kapoor (Sonu Sood) in his next film. He meets a stuttering chartered accountant Anand (er, whatever that is!) played by Kunal Khemu, whose girlfriend Neha (Soha Ali Khan) is a budding actress. They clash initially but eventually come together for a nefarious plot to make money off a guaranteed flop film, and so they go out of their way to make the worst film possible..

The film manages to get a lot of very funny lines here and there, especially when it comes to industry references. Sonu Sood's opening scene has references to Southie masala clichés, which utterly killed me - the actor himself was also really good in the role.

Some of the comedy falls utterly flat, though, and I personally hated the cheesy song picturizations - I feel like the film should've been more self-conscious about them. They were mostly cringe-inducing.

The film they end up making is a shameless cut-and-paste film with plot elements from Sholay, DDLJ, Lagaan.. But of course, it's hilarious, and some of the best, silliest moments come from seeing the end product. A total joy for me was Soha Ali Khan's Neha having to do her best Basanti impression - golden scene.

I wish the film had been tighter and the song sequences better thought-out with regards to the rest of the film. They really jar and worst of all, offer little entertainment (I thought the first song with Kunal was particularly off-putting). But the performances in general are good. It's worth a watch if you like some of the cast - I'm particular to Soha and Kunal Khemu personally - but otherwise I wouldn't recommend it strongly.

Now here's a gossipy question - are Soha and Kunal really dating?