Rating : ***
Tere Bin Laden will instantly appeal to fans of the 1980s movies Peecha Karo and Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro and the more recent Sankat City. The movies share a flair for irreverence, sharp political humour and deliberate tackiness. Abhishek Sharma’s debut feature converts its modest budget into a style statement. Tere Bin Laden is about little people with big dreams who bumble about trying to realise their ambitions. Although Sharma’s satire doesn’t bite as sharply as Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, he extracts some good-natured and timely humour from America’s War on Terror.
The movie’s intrepid hero is Ali (Pakistani pop star Ali Zafar), a television reporter who is so desperate to emigrate to America that he tricks a chicken farmer (Pradhuman Singh Mall) into posing as Osama bin Laden for a video. Ali hopes that the video warning will become his ticket to the States. Rather, the Americans send an FBI agent (Barry John) to investigate the matter. Sharma, working with an enthusiastic cast, aims for chuckles rather than guffaws. Although the humour is simplistic and occasionally silly, the movie is well-plotted and undeniably funny. The cast seems to enjoy itself immensely: Ali Zafar is charming and convincing, Pradhuman Singh Mall is as broad as he needs to be and Barry John has a great time chomping on his vowels. Nandini Ramnath |
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