Well Done, Abba
Dir: Shyam Benegal
Starring : Boman Irani, Minissha Lamba, Samir Dattani, Yashpal Sharma, Ila Arun, Sonali Kulakarni
Shyam Benegal aims to catch lightning twice and garner the same kind of commercial and critical success that he did with his last outing, Welcome To Sajjanpur with another gentle comedy with a social message based in not-so-shining (i.e. rural) India. But while Abba has its moments (especially in its first half) and it’s always a relief to not be watching yet another NRI-pandering effort revolving around rich, beautiful people working themselves into a romantic tizzy in rich, beautiful settings the trouble is that the movie casts its net a bit too wide.
The screenplay is cobbled together from three different short stories by three different writers with the result that the seams show as the movie tries to tackle a few too many issues in just one movie: bureaucratic corruption; illiteracy; the scarcity of water in rural areas; the selling of women to older Middle Eastern buyers; women’s rights; party politics; and that old favourite, communal harmony. So Abba ends up being at least half an hour too long with a long drawn out denouement that runs well past its climax.
That being said the movie still has a few things going for it. The gentle rhythm of Benegal’s storytelling, some genuinely funny moments and the fine acting by the ensemble cast. The ever-reliable and terrific Boman Irani as Armaan Ali (as well as his twin Rehman Ali) takes the lead, of course, but he is given fine support by Minissha Lamba (whose face seems to settled down after her unnecessary nose-jobs) as Arman’s feisty daughter Muskan as well as by Benegal’s various regulars such as Ila Arun and Rajit Kapoor. However, I do wish that Benegal had given more to do to two of my favourite supporting actors in Mollywood, namely Yashpal Sharma and Sonali Kulkarni. Still, the movie would have been a lot better with a tighter script and fewer targets in its sight.
Cut to chase: Done well enough but could have been a lot better.
