Tere Bin Laden-Dead Or Alive Movie Review: A Decent Comedy With A Dash Of Silliness

When Abhishek Sharma had made his directorial debut with the laugh riot Tere Bin Laden in 2010, it got a warm welcome from all quarters, but when the sequel was announced, it led to skepticism as Osama Bin Laden is no more and everyone wondered what the makers would come up with this time.

However, the makers of the film have come up with a decent comedy, though it has its silly moments too.

When Sharma (Manish Paul), an aspiring filmmaker runs into Paddi Singh (Pradhuman Singh), an Osama-lookalike, he believes that this meeting will be his ticket to success as a filmmaker.

Sharma and Singh team up to make a film (Tere Bin Laden, in case you were wondering), which becomes a big hit. However, when Sharma is chucked out of the sequel, Paddi too decides to sacrifice his Bollywood career and follow his mentor.

Meanwhile, CIA agent David Do-Something (Sikander Kher) is trying to figure out how to present proof of Osama's termination to President Obama and when he discovers the existence of a lookalike, he immediately disguises himself as producer David Chadda and flies to Mumbai to lure the struggling actor in his trap.

Meanwhile, a terrorist leader Khalili (Piyush Mishra) in Pakistan also wants to get his hands on the Osama lookalike to send across a message that the 'Sheikh' is still alive. The comedy of errors that arise when these three situations clash with each other, is what the film is all about.

Manish Paul has proved his comic timing on TV shows and his debut Mickey Virus and the actor is consistently funny in the sequel too though he tends to over emote at times, while Pradhuman Singh lends humour to the film with his 'clueless clone' act. However, the one actor who takes the cake this time is Sikander Kher as the shady CIA chief David Do-Something and loud Punjabi producer David Chadda. Sikander has breathed life in his character and every scene that features him, is sure to make you laugh out loud. Be it his redneck twang or his Punjabi-accented Hindi, Sikandar is a treat to watch in every scene. Piyush Mishra seems wasted, but the rest of the cast has done a decent job.

As for the film, Tere Bin Laden-Dead Or Alive is a semi-intelligently written comedy, with sly barbs at US politics and even Bollywood standards-'Bollywood heroes blow their trumpet for an year even if they land a minute-long scene in an English film', says Sharma with a knowing sneer to Chadda in one scene while in another scene, David's CIA identification reads 'Chief Of Invasions' (too good!)

However, some of the gags fail to evoke anything more than a tired chuckle (like theSansani reporter act, which has been done to death in countless other films). The plot could have been a recipe for a great satire, but unfortunately, the makers decided to make a goofy comedy with it, despite the potential of the idea. Also, the second half has been stretched to an extent, though mercifully, the film is not peppered with needless songs.

In conclusion, Tere Bin Laden-Dead Or Alive is not a bad watch if you don't mind a dash of silliness with your comedy…