Actress: Neha Dhupia
Release Date: 16th December, 2011
Cast: Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Rajat Kapoor, Sanjay Mishra, Naseeruddin Shah (Special Appearance)
Director: Saurabh Shukla
Producer/s: Ravindra Singh, Sameer Nair
Plot: It is a romantic comedy of two people who are from two different worlds.
Vidyadhar Acharya (Vinay Pathak) has just shifted from Banaras to Mumbai. A man with old world values who finds it difficult to adjust in the city of professional attitude. He finds Mumbai heartless. He misses home …
Vidya is a medical representative in a private firm, with a bare survival salary. He manages to find a flat in sales tax colony, where legally no tenant can be kept. .. And that is the reason that the rents are low. The house is quiet comfortable but the only problem is the unexpected raid of the vigilance department. At such occasions, Vidya has to run and hide till the vigilance officers leave the compound.
Mehak Malavde (Neha Dhupia) is a chorus dancer in Bollywood. She has learned the tricks of surviving in this fast paced city. She is loud and jazzy. Her friends also are quiet noisy.
Palash is the ace choreographer and Mehak works in his group. Palash is obsessed with his art and appears emotionless, at times rude, as a person. Mehak looks up to him. She is infatuated with him.
Mehak shifts in the flat opposite to Vidya’s. Vidya instantly dislikes her. She also hates him. Vidya finds it quiet difficult to deal with her flamboyant neighbour and her loud friends, whom Vidya considers as uncultured. It starts a series of confrontations between them, where Vidya has to retreat most of the time.
One day Vidya returns to find, that in his absence, the Vigilance department had conducted a raid on his building. Vidya was lucky that he was not at home. But Mehak had no such luck. She was caught by the Vigilance officers and was evacuated from her flat. They have sealed the flat.
Vidya is very happy as the core cause of his problems has been removed from his building.
He reaches home only to get a shock of his life….
The lock of his flat is broken … and Mehak has occupied his house. She blames Vidya for being a responsible for the raid. Vidya finds it ridiculous and asks her to leave immediately. She refuses and announces that she will use his flat till she gets her own back. A frustrated Vidaya threatens to call police. Mehak reminds him that in such a scenario, even he is going to loose his house.
Now begins a journey of two people, who can’t stand each other, stuck in the same flat.
Meanwhile Mehak gets a break as the lead dancer in a prestigious Music video.
She is very happy and makeovers the flat. Vidya is shocked see his well done up but unrecoganisable flat. Mehak requests him not to fight on that happy day of her’s. Vidya understands and congratulates.
But then there is a raid…
They both run to the terrace to hide … In that long wait for the raid to get over, they spend a moment of sharing. That starts a new relationship of understanding between the two. Life is good now. Vidya has started liking Mumbai. Mehak also likes this new life, where there is a friend, who cares. Vidya is enchanted with the freedom of Mehak’s soul where as Mehak finds caring and concern in Viday’s grounded life.
In a vulnerable moment, she tells Vidya that she has left her home and has been a disgrace to her parents. She wants to achieve success, so that her parents can be proud of her. Though she wishes that they were with her in this glorious moment of hers, when she starts shooting for the Music Video.
On the shooting day Mehak is shocked to see her father entering with Vidya. Vidya thinks that this is going to reunite the family. But father gets very upsets as he feels that his daughter has brought disgrace to the family, by dancing publicly, in skimpy cloths.
Palash intervenes and father leaves denouncing his daughter.
That night Vidya and Mehak have a fight. The contradiction in their ideologies parts them.
Mehak moves out of the house and a dejected Vidya returns to Banaras.
But both are unhappy and lonely.
Time spent apart makes them realize that life is not in extremes. So they come on a common ground, to live happily ever after.
Pappu Can’t Dance Saala is an unlikely love story of a small-town guy (Vinay Pathak) and a chorus dancer (Neha Dhupia) of Bollywood. Read the review for more.
Business rating: 1.5 / 5 stars
Star cast: Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Rajat Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla, Sanjay Mishra, Naseeruddin Shah.
What’s Good: The realistic comedy; performances of the actors.
What’s Bad: Repetitiveness of the drama; the lack of a believable conflict in the second half.
Verdict:Pappu Can’t Dance Saala is an entertainer but only upto a point. It will work to an extent in a few multiplexes but that’s not enough to fetch returns.
Loo break: A couple in the second half.
Watch or Not?: Watch it for the comedy and the performances.
R-Vision India Pvt. Ltd. and Marriedprint Films Production’s Pappu Can’t Dance Saala (UA) is an unlikely love story of a small-town guy and a chorus dancer of Bollywood. Vidyadhar Acharya (Vinay Pathak) comes to Bombay from Varanasi and finds it difficult to adjust to the fast-paced life of the heartless city. His neighbour, Mehak Malavade (Neha Dhupia), is a chorus dancer in Bollywood who is loud and brash and who has adjusted to the city in spite of hailing from another small town, Kolhapur. Both of them illegally occupy flats in government quarters but a raid by the vigilance officers leads to Mehak’s flat being sealed. Since Vidyadhar and Mehak can’t see eye to eye due to their very different ideologies, Mehak assumes that Vidyadhar must’ve complained about her illegal stay to the vigilance officers. To spite him, she shifts into his flat and even occupies his bedroom.
Initial quarrels and bickerings give way to Vidyadhar and Mehak ultimately developing a soft corner for each other. However, Mehak does not approve of Vidyadhar’s gesture of getting her father to the city to meet her. The father, on his part, is angry with Mehak for spoiling the family name by becoming a chorus dancer in films. Frustrated, Mehak gives a piece of her mind to Vidyadhar who then leaves the city and returns to Varanasi. What happens thereafter? Do Vidyadhar and Mehak miss each other? Have they fallen in love with one another? Do they ever meet again?
Pappu Can’t Dance Saala Review: Script Analysis
Saurabh Shukla’s slice-of-life story is sweet and affords itself to several comic situations, especially in the initial portions when Vidyadhar and Mehak can’t get along with each other. But since the story is uni-dimensional, it becomes predictable and repetitive after some time. Saurabh Shukla’s screenplay fumbles in the second half in the absence of a well-defined and concrete conflict between the two lead players. In fact, the conflict looks quite contrived and is the weakest portion of the drama. It is in the second part of the pre-interval portion and post-interval too that the audience gets the feeling that the script was more suitable for a television serial.
While some comic scenes are quite interesting and entertaining, the latter ones lose quite a bit of their charm because they appear repetitive. Had the plot been more varied and had there been more incidents in the lives of Vidyadhar and Mehak, the drama would’ve been far more engaging and enjoyable. Nevertheless, the dialogues, penned by Saurabh Shukla and Rahul Awate, and the very natural performances of the actors save the film from becoming boring despite the repetitiveness.
Pappu Can’t Dance Saala Review: Star Performances
Vinay Pathak does an excellent job of the small-town guy with his principles intact. His acting is layered and he is so much in synch with his character that he makes Vidyadhar Acharya an endearing personality. Neha Dhupia is simply brilliant, delivering an effortless and natural performance. She makes a number of scenes, especially in the first half, truly entertaining because of her spontaneity. Rajat Kapoor gives a restrained performance. Brijendra Kala lends good support. Naseeruddin Shah is very likeable in a special appearance. As his wife, Veena Malik also does a fine job. Sanjay Mishra and Saurabh Shukla make their presence felt in brief roles. Eddie Seth (as Mehak’s English-speaking friend, Darsheel), Kanchan Pagare (as the ‘Hello’ guy, Tavade), Sushil (as the ‘Hello’ guy’s accomplice), Rati Shankar Tripathi as Dwivedi (friend of Vidyadhar’s father) and Datta Sonawane (as police constable) provide very good support. Anand Abhyankar is fair as Mehak’s father. Suhasini (as dancer Beejal), Vidhi and Sharda (both as Mehak’s friends), Sunil Chaturvedi (as society secretary Chaturvedi) and the rest are alright.
Pappu Can’t Dance Saala Review: Direction & Music
Saurabh Shukla’s direction is mature and definitely better than the script which loses steam after a point. However, the whole angle of space crunch in Bombay and illegal occupation of flats would be comprehended and appreciated more by the audience in Bombay and other big cities but the viewers in small towns may not identify with the housing crisis. Malhar Patekar’s music is fair.
Lyrics (Amitabh Bhattacharya and Saurabh Shukla) go well with the mood of the film. Song picturisations (Longines Fernandes) are appropriate. Fuwad Khan’s cinematography is nice. Sets (Meenal Aggarwal) are alright. Editing, by Sankalp Meshram, is functional.
Pappu Can’t Dance Saala Review: Komal Nahta’s Verdict
On the whole, Pappu Can’t Dance Saala is entertaining but upto a point only. It will win more acclaim than box-office rewards because it cannot hope to recover its cost from the few multiplexes it will work in. Its poor start at most of the places is an indication of its ultimate box-office fate.
Pappu Can’t Dance Saala Trailer
Komal Nahta, the Editor of Koimoi.com, is Bollywood’s most trusted trade analyst & film reviewer. You can follow him on Twitter and check out his Video Blog.
