Star cast: Kirron Kher, Kanwaljeet, Jackie Shroff, Divya Dutta, Viraf Patel, Sachin Sharma, Simran.
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Plot: Mummy Punjabi is the story of a modern Punjabi mother (Kirron Kher) who has to deal with separation from her kids.
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What’s Good: Kirron Kher’s performance; a few comedy scenes.
What’s Bad: The scattered screenplay; the average music; the absence of face value.
Verdict: Although it is an honest attempt, Mummy Punjabi has bleak prospects at the box-office.
Loo break: Several in the first half.
Watch it or not?: Watch it for Kirron Kher’s performance and the emotion-filled climax.
User rating:
Creative Steps Productions’ Mummy Punjabi is the story of a mother who has to deal with changes when her kids get married. Babyji a.k.a. Mummyji (Kirron Kher) is a modern mother who lives in Chandigarh with her husband (Kanwaljeet) and their three adult children. While she gives full freedom to her young daughter (Simran), Mummyji is rather protective of her two sons, of whom one (Sachin Sharma) is a doctor and the other (Viraf Patel), a restaurateur. Mummyji dreams of marrying off the doctor-son to an NRI girl, while she wants a homely girl for the other son. In spite of her husband’s pleas, she gives her daughter a free hand to do whatever she wants.
A Sikh bachelor (Jackie Shroff), who was Mummyji’s college classmate, stays close to their house and often visits the family. He openly admires Mummyji. Her husband takes this in good humour as he is also friends with the bachelor. A maid (Divya Dutta) is the gossip-monger of the housing society.
Soon, Mummyji finds suitable brides for her two sons. To her surprise, the brides, who seem to fit into her criteria for her daughters-in-law, reveal their true colours afterwards. While her homely daughter-in-law breaks into an outrageous dance at her younger son’s wedding, her NRI daughter-in-law turns out to be a cheat, who was trying to swindle the family! However, life soon returns to normalcy as the daughters-in-law come around. Next, Mummyji also discovers that her son has actually been operating a night-club and had lied to her about running a restaurant. Mummyji is aghast but takes it in her stride. Soon, both her sons and their wives leave for the US for better prospects. An ageing Mummyji and husband are left behind alone with the daughter. Mummyji’s bachelor-friend also gets married. Even her daughter finds a good suitor and marries him. What happens next? Does Mummyji continue living life as she always has, or does her life change? What about her children and their spouses? The rest of the film and the climax answer these questions.
Pammi Somal’s story is routine but it had good scope for drama. However, the film’s screenplay, also penned by Pammi Somal, is not as well written as it should have been since it often gets off-track and focuses on sub-plots which give the feeling that the main story – that of Mummyji and her family – is being neglected. The establishment of Mummyji’s character takes too much time and footage, boring the audience in the process. Several scenes – particularly in which the bachelor is wooing Mummyji, in which Munni (the maid) is gossiping about all and sundry, in which Mummyji goes to party at her son’s night club – seem superfluous. The scenes showing Mummyji interacting with her husband and sons get repetitive and boring after a point in time. The problems that arise when her sons get married seem rather trivial because they have been treated in that fashion. Several scenes seem half-complete. In the scene where the ‘homely’ daughter-in-law breaks into a raunchy dance, the music playing in the background, which is what the viewers can hear, does not simply match with her dance steps. Worse still, the daughter-in-law seems to be singing a song, but the audience can’t hear anything because the words of her song have been drowned in the loud background score! Another minus point is that the film, for no apparent reason, has been made in English.
Not to say that the film doesn’t have its merits. There are a few comedy scenes and a very emotional sequence in the climax. But apart from this, there is little that the film offers by way of entertainment.
Kirron Kher lives the role of Mummyji. She plays the endearing and emotional screen mother ably. A fine performance, indeed! Kanwaljeet is very good as Mummyji’s husband. Jackie Shroff is okay in a bit role. His fake beard looks irritating. Divya Dutta does well as the maid. Viraf Patel and Sachin Sharma do average jobs. Nimisha Goswami and Urvashi Gandhi, as Mummyji’s daughters-in-law, do below-average jobs. Anju Mahendru (as Jackie Shroff’s sister), Simran (as Mummyji’s daughter), Satish Kaushik (as the marriage bureau owner) and Rohit Roy (as Mummyji’s online friend) support well. Gurdas Maan is alright in a special appearance.
Pammi Somal’s direction is okay. She seems to have concentrated too much on making the character of Mummyji lovable and very little on making her narrative more impactful. Aadesh Shrivastava’s music is ordinary. Lyrics, by Sameer, are okay. Of the four songs in the film, none is memorable. The background score is appropriate. Camerawork is ordinary. Editing should have been sharper.
On the whole, Mummy Punjabi is a dull fare. The lack of face value and tough competition from Bodyguard will seal its fate at the box-office.
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