Father is the Groom

A lecherous old man (Om Puri hitting rock bottom by accepting a role as hideous as this) holds on to his pillow and dreams about a dozen bikini clad babes cavorting with him on the beach. A modern, chic and highly educated girl (Genelia D'souza rolling her eyes, raising her brow and twitching her lower lip in the name of acting) calls up her ex- college mate (Akshaye Khanna trying to infuse his boyish charm into an ill written role) and his family and makes stories about their non existent relationship. A dull music teacher (a jaded, disinterested and awfully miscast Sobhana) wearing drab cotton saris sings raagas to herself with her tampura. The old father (Paresh Rawal, looking unhealthy and not in form) clad in white dhoti kurtas doubles up as cook for his younger son and feels sorry for the trauma that his older son (Manoj Joshi) goes through, thanks to his ill tempered wife. A tough she cop (Archana Puran Singh, typecast) shouts unprintable stuff at full throttle everytime she appears on screen. Welcome to the world of slapstick comedies, Priyadarshan style! This time the remake raja has zeroed in on Sibi Malayil's "Ishtam" (2001). You have to give it to Priyadarshan in the sense that whenever he attempts a remake, he remains as faithful as faithful can be to the original. He does not make a remake of the same story, or the same script or the same scenes. Instead it is a dialogue by dialogue remake so much so that one wonders whether he is using scriptwriters or translators to pen his dialogues. However, the natural charm and subtlety that made the malayalam original endearing is sorely missing in "Mere Baap Pehle Aap" Add to that Sabu Cyril's difficult on the eyes Production Design (think they have been using the same sets that were erected during Hungama days), Vidyasagar's lack lustre music and the nerve wrecking loudness that runs throughout the film- one will definitely agree that the remake is nowhere close to the original.

However, for those of you who have not seen the original, this one might still appeal provided you are a fan of the Priyadarshan brand of comedy!