A tragicomic spin on unwelcome guests Guest In London

Director: Ashwni Dheer Starring: Paresh Rawal, Kartik Aryan, Kriti Kharbanda, Tanve Azmi First things first. The most welcome ence in their home and with farting. thing about this tragic- comedy For some strange reason the script, about unwelcome guests is Paresh otherwise devilishly deft in the way Rawal, an actor of myriad means it blends bacchanalia and backchat who has lately strayed into politics. with somewhat serious issues, is Seeing him back, doing what he’s obsessed with flatulence. Rawal’s most comfortable doing, it is crystalcharacter speaks about and indulges clear that the actor is most at home in it constantly and there is a lengthy doing what he was born to.Acting. mushaira session over whiskey and

Could he please stop being a neta pakodas where the theme is fart. and return to being a full-time abThis fetish for flatulence destroys hineta? much of the film’s otherwise well

Paresh and the neglected Tanve intended potshots at contempoAzmi put in spirited sometimes rary relationships which tend to boisterous, sometimes subdued be weighed down by the stress of but never uneven performance as an staying afloat. There is a touching over-friendly Punjabi couple who interlude where the oldest neighinsist on inflicting their scorching bour (the veteran Vishwa Mohan overbearing warmth on a young Badola) in suburban London passes couple with commitment issues in away and his sons have no time for London, played by the affable Kartik his funeral times. Aryan and Kriti Kharbanda (both Or when Kartik Narayan’s slimy need to be seen more often), who boss hits on a hapless Chinese emhave no choice but to bear with the ployee, Paresh intervenes firmly. It’s unwanted guests’ intrusive pres- a sequence done with conviction, though tiresomely lengthy and repetitive.

Yup, Rawal knows how to hold a scene together even if it(the scene) overstays its welcome. And young Kartik and Kriti stand up well to his histrionic binging. On the other hand, the ever-dependable Sanjai Mishra is curiously out of sorts as a Pakistani neighbour. There are some cringe-worthy racist jibes about skin colour, India-Pakistan relations and Chinese dominion and a distastefully long and painful sequence involving a mistaken case of infant abuse that could have been avoided.

But there is more to like than hate in the awfully titled Guest In London (who would want to a comedy with such an insipid title?). Let me tell you, it’s not easy to generate sustained laughter without offending any individual or community. Writer-director Dheer succeeds in doing so to a large extent. There are frequent flings with farce in the plot that yield some solid laughs.

Cinematographer Sudhir. K. Chaudhary captures London in a sweet obvious way that gels with the film’s de-intellectualised tone.

If you’ve seen the prequel to this comedy of ‘bin bulaaye mehmaan’ you would know exactly what to expect. Paresh Rawal steps into the same role with an infectious sometimes-overdone gusto that fits into the scream’ of things. And Tanve Azmi as his better-half adds considerably to Rawal’s punchy performance. Together the couple is a laugh riot, whenever the writing permits.

While some of jokes work swimmingly for example Rawal’s entry gag where he brings an entire organization to a standstill while escorting his wife up the elevator, other gags simply apart. Much like the guests who overstay their welcome, come of the jokes also go on for too long. As writer-director Ashwni Dheer’s roots are in television several plot point read like episodes from a television sitcom.

What stays with us beyond the bustle of humorous confederation is the message that we need to respect personal space, but not at the cost of family ties. IANS