Review : Tere Bin Laden

Tere Bin Laden

Director : Abhishek Sharma

Writer : Abhishek Sharma

Music : Shankar Ehsaan Loy

Cast : Ali Zafar, Pradhuman Singh, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Sugandha Garg, Rahul Singh, Chirag Vohra, Piyush Mishra

What goes for the film : Witty and earthy dialogues, brilliant performances, well executed satire

What goes against the audience : Poor song placement, shoddy production design

Cinemaa Opinion : A winner of a film in spite of its shortcomings. Scroll down for a detailed review.

A winner despite its shortcomings

Political satire on a global issue was among the last things I expected from a Bollywood film. And out of the blue comes Tere Bin Laden to tickle my funny bone so vigorously that I just couldn’t resist the urge to reach for my totem, one that I didn’t have. Tere Bin Laden is another debut feature that delights in a year when heavyweights have disappointed and absurdity has reigned supreme.

Ali Hasan (Ali Zafar), a journalist wants to migrate from Pakistan to the US. However, 9-11 happens and he ends up getting deported. He tries various tricks of the trade to sneak in on the sly, but his attempts end up getting thwarted each time. This 7 year toil is beautifully encapsulated within the opening titles that’s accompanied by the hilarious background of Ullu da pattha. 7 years later, Ali is toiling away at a nondescript TV channel, Danka TV, owned by Majeed (Piyush Mishra), though still on the lookout for a way to the promised land.

While covering an event as nondescript as the channel he works for (Muqabla-e-baang, a competition of clucking roosters), he comes across his trump card. Noora (Pradhuman Singh), the owner of the winning rooster, bears an uncanny resemblance to Osama Bin Laden. And Ali quickly hatches a master plan that’ll get him the money required to pay for his illegal papers to be prepared. His partners in crime include his ever-faithful sidekick & cameraman, Gul (Nikhil Ratnaparkhi), an ambitious beautician, Zoya (Sugandha Garg), a colleague who’s the boss’ favourite whipping boy, Latif (Chirag Vohra) and a rabid America-hater RJ, Qureshi (Rahul Singh).

Zoya’s make-up transforms Noora into Osama, who is then made to read a passage in Arabic written by Latif. Qureshi dubs it mimicking Osama perfectly and Gul films the speech. Ali then sells it to his own boss who sells it further to an Indian news channel. The tape is broadcast and is taken a bit too seriously by everyone, including the Americans, who send in a fanatically enthusiastic agent, Ted (Barry John) in pursuit of Osama. What transpires next takes the humour in the film to the top level.

Under the façade of its superlative humour, the film carries subtle indictments of several ways of common people as well as the powers that be. It takes a swipe at the concept of the migration without reason and how people waste their entire lives in the hope of going abroad. Parallel to that, the rising protectionism and cultural intolerance in the US is parodied, raising the question whether the place is truly worth the effort. It makes fun of how things are blown out of proportion at all levels, by the government, the media and the people themselves. There’s a crude but heartfelt indictment of the massive destruction that the “war on terror” has left behind. Sharma knows what he’s doing and he does it well, keeping all pretensions and political correctness aside.

The performances are mostly superb, matching the wit and the meat of the writing. Pradhuman Singh as Noora is a riot in every single scene that he features in. The innocence of the character drips through like syrup from his facial expressions, voice modulation and eyes. Piyush Mishra packs quite a punch as Majeed and the digs at his baldness are awesome. Nikhil Ratnaparkhi exhibits brilliant comic timing, several notches above the overhyped and irritating Omi Vaidya. And why doesn’t Rajendra Sethi get some better roles? He steals the thunder in a cameo as the owner of an ingeniously named travel agency, Lashqar-E-Amreeka (watch out for its brilliant tagline). Sugandha Garg oozes spontaneity as Zoya. Rahul Singh, Chirag Vohra & Chinmay Mandlekar (Ted’s sidekick) pretty much serve their purpose. The sole disappointment comes in the form of Ali Zafar. Though he has a decent screen presence, his constantly raised eyebrows and the permanently plastered smile get to one’s nerves after a few minutes. And that’s just a bit too much considering he’s there in practically every scene in the film.

A couple of other pitfalls somehow depleted what could have been a wonderful piece of cinema. One is the song placement. The film didn’t really need any songs save for the credits. And the songs placed in between act as unnecessary and irritating breaks in the fun trip. The second one though, is no fault of the cast or crew. Our decadent system wouldn’t allow for such original and witty ideas to flourish and so, these films that we truly need end up mostly in the bin. The ones that do get made, like TBL, do so with moderate or very low budgets, thus having to compromise heavily on the production design. Had this film even had half of what A-list stars charge for a film as its budget, the production design could’ve been far better. Are the Chopras, Johars and Roshans listening?

But that said, make no mistake. Tere Bin Laden is a victory of sorts. It represents the triumph of content over gloss, of performance over locations and of wit over pretentions. It makes you laugh and at the same time, makes you think about a few things, big and small. This is Khosla ka Ghosla going global. More power to Abhishek Sharma for bringing the best of colloquial humour to the screen and for managing the perfect balancing act between the earthy humour and a serious global issue.