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Star cast: Ali Zafar, Pradhuman Singh, Sugandha Garg, Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Piyush Mishra, Rahul Singh, Barry John.
Plot: Television news reporter Ali wants to migrate to the US but his visa always gets rejected. One day, he comes across an Osama bin Laden look-alike and makes a fake video with him issuing threats to America. The joke snowballs into an international issue with the US sending a team to India to investigate.
What’s Good: The comedy; the music; the dialogues; the acting.
What’s Bad: The uni-dimensional script, which may not find favour with that section of the audience which wants multiple tracks in a film.
Verdict: Tere Bin Laden has the merits to pick up by word of mouth, and appeal to the multiplex audience in the cities.
Loo break: None!
Walkwater Media’s Tere Bin Laden (UA) is a satire. Ali Hassan (Ali Zafar), living in Pakistan and working as a television news reporter in Danka TV channel, wants to migrate to the USA. His repeated attempts fail as his visa is always rejected. Then one day, he comes across Noora (Pradhuman Singh), a look-alike of dreaded terrorist Osama bin Laden.
Ali hatches a plot to produce a fake Osama video and sell it to a TV news channel. Unfortunately, the fake video creates a furore when it is beamed on a news channel. The US government, taking it to be real, goes into a tizzy. A team of Americans, headed by secret agent Ted (Barry John), is sent to Pakistan to investigate. Meanwhile, the US steps up measures to give a fitting reply to Osama. Does Ted track down Ali Hassan as the culprit? What happens to Ali’s dreams of settling in America? Answers to these questions are revealed in the latter part of the 95-minute film.
The film is a farcical comedy and a genuinely good one at that. But having said that, it must also be added that farces don’t have much of a market in India. The film’s story and screenplay, both penned by debut-making writer-director Abhishek Sharma, are very entertaining and engrossing. Of course, the plot has been stretched too much, something which a section of the audience may enjoy but another set of audience will not take kindly to. Another ‘minus’ point is that the writer has not dwelt upon what effect the fake video has on the real Osama bin Laden. No doubt, that was not the subject of the comedy drama but the more orthodox audience is likely to view this omission as an error if only because the point of the real Osama has not even been raised in the film although it does crop up in the audience’s mind.
Abhishek Sharma needs kudos for scripting an intelligent drama which keeps the viewer involved. His dialogues, especially, are excellent, though more class-appealing than mass-appealing.
Ali Zafar makes a very confident debut. The Pakistani singer-actor looks good and acts and dances very well. He will especially become a favourite of the fair sex for his chocolate looks. Pradhuman Singh also makes a lovely debut as Noora and Osama bin Laden. Like Ali Zafar, his are also an endearing role and an equally lovable performance. Sugandha Garg acts with admirable ease as Zoya. Nikhil Ratnaparkhi shines in the role of Gul. Piyush Mishra, as owner of Danka TV channel Majeed, is first-rate. Rahul Singh does a fine job as radio jockey and voice over artiste Qureshi. Barry John acts quite well. Chirag Vohra does a brilliant job as editor of Danka TV. Chinmay Mandlekar is superb as Ted’s sidekick.
Abhishek Sharma makes an impressive debut as director. His narrative style is appropriate to his script. Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Abhijit Vaghani and Dhruv Dhalla have all come up with a fine music score. The ‘Ullu da pattha’ (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) song is a hit. ‘I love Amrika’ (by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) is also a lovely song. ‘Kukduk’ (Dhruv Dhalla), ‘Shor sharaba’ (Abhijit Vaghani and Dhruv Dhalla) and ‘Welcome to Amrika’ (Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy) are entertaining numbers. Lyrics (Jaideep Sahni, Dhruv Dhalla and Jaspreet Singh) deserve special mention. Dhruv Dhalla’s background score goes well with the mood of the film. Camerawork (San- tosh Thundiyil) deserves distinction marks.
On the whole, Tere Bin Laden is an entertaining comedy for the youth in the cities. It has the germs to click with the multiplex audience on the strength of positive word of mouth. However, its poor start will prove to be an impediment as the business, in most cases today, is mainly of the first weekend.
