Toh Baat Pakki!

However, the problem is that in trying to ‘fix’ Nisha with Rahul, Rajeshwari had led them to fall in love with one another. And so, while Nisha yearns for her beloved but finally agrees to go by her elder sister’s wishes, Rahul hatches a plot to ensure that Nisha and Yuvraj’s marriage is stalled and that he gets Nisha’s hand. Does he succeed?

The story, written by Pramod Sharma, is fair but the problems are in Vibha Singh’s screenplay which is written in a way that would’ve been more suitable for a television serial. There are some funny scenes but the humour is not consistently good enough. Probably, even more irritating is the inherently slow tempo of the drama. The characters seem to move at a snail’s pace, much like the car belonging to Surinder and Rajeshwari. Also, just moving from one eligible bachelor to a second one doesn’t create the desired humour. What was needed was for Rajeshwari to keep moving from one to a second one, then to a third one and, perhaps, a fourth one. It is only then that her fickle-mindedness and her fascination for a rich boy would’ve been appropriately established to evoke laughter.

The second half appears too stretched and, at times, forced too. Rahul trying to scare Yuvraj and his mother (Himani Shivpuri) doesn’t evoke much laughter. Nor does the Kidnapping drama of the climax because although it is supposed to look real, it actually looks stage-managed right from the word ‘go’. In fact, the humour in the post-interval portion doesn’t gladden the heart. Even the track of Rahul’s maternal uncle (Sharat Saxena) fails to work. It is because of the aforementioned reasons that even some witty dialogues have less than the desired impact.

Another major drawback of the film is that it talks about very small and trivial things. For instance, when Rajeshwari compares the rates of the caterer, music band etc. which she has managed to get for her sister’s wedding with those Rahul has managed, she speaks in terms of saving a few thousand rupees only! This suddenly makes the audience realise that the characters are too petty-minded. No doubt they are simpletons living in a small town, but the audience today is used to hearing dialogues about crores of rupees, not thousands!

Tabu is cute and her performance is refreshing. Sharman Joshi is endearing. Vatsal Seth does quite well. Yuvika Chaudhary is no heroine material. Her acting is average. Because she lacks the oomph and is also not a striking beauty, it looks funny that two guys should be dying to get married to her. Ayub Khan is suitably restrained. Himani Shivpuri does justice to her role. Sharat Saxena is alright. Suhasini Mulay and Upasna Singh lend the required support.