Mere Baap Pehle Aap Movie Review: Mere Baap, Mat Dekho Aap

In spite of some of Priyadarshan's last few films attaining box office success, something has been missing post the likes of films like Hungama, Hulchul and Hera Pheri. Mere Baap Pehle Aap, is a truly boring, long drawn affair which entertains in only brief intervals, and several of the jokes and intended funny sequences fall flat.

The story is essentially about a young man, Gaurav (Akshaye Khanna) and his father Janardan Rane (Paresh Rawal) who share a close yet unusual father son relationship; the roles seem to be reversed with Gaurav being the authoritative disciplinary, bailing his father out of numerous messes and Janardan being the subdued father. Janardan is in essence a sweet man who devotes his life to bringing up his sons although his older son, Chirag (Manoj Joshi), is a henpecked husband who unfortunately is unable to support his father directly because of this nagging wife, but ensures that through his brother Gaurav, everything is taken care. However Janardan's main problem is his best friend, Mathur (Om Puri), who because of his desperate need to find a wife for himself, constantly lands himself and Janardan into trouble and hence Gaurav does his best to keep his father away from Mathur. Enter Shikha, an ex college classmate of Gaurav's who harasses him with several phone calls as means of taking revenge on him for a ragging incident that he had pulled in college. Eventually they become friends and on seeing their closeness, Janardan's dreams of seeing the two marry. The twist in the tale comes when we learn that the lady Shikha lives with in Mumbai, Anuradha (Shobhana), is the long lost childhood love of Janardan. How everyone tries to get them together in spite of stiff opposition from certain characters forms the rest of the story.

The film is excessively lengthy, close to three hours, which actually feels longer because most of the jokes aren't funny and the scenes very boring. No doubt once in a while a line or two as spoken which can't help but make you laugh, but unfortunately such lines are few. The best scenes are probably the heated comic exchanges between father and son, while Mathur's antics of trying to find a bride, as well as Shikha's prank calls to Gaurav just don't work. The police officer sequences are just about okay, nothing great, but funny at times. The second half of the film shifts from humour to drama, or rather melodrama and that makes the proceedings even more unwatchable.

Performance wise, Paresh Rawal and Akshaye Khanna are in full form as usual however there is nothing novel in their performances and you get a feel of d?j? vu as neither offers anything new. Genelie has an expressive face but her dialogue delivery is flat and hence makes her overall a bit irritating. Om Puri, Archan Puran Singh, Manoj Joshi, Shobhana and the rest of the cast are not at all impressive but that is more the fault of the writer than theirs. They perform what is written and in that way they have done their jobs, but the characters are ineffective.

Some beautiful camera work in showcasing Kerala and Goa but the songs are not at all worth remembering and could have easily been cut out from the film. All in all, this is a film you can surely give a miss. We just hope that Priyadarshan bounces back with his next, as this one was disappointing at best.