REVIEW: Phas Gaye Re Obama

THE DAMNED UNITED

Director Subhash Kapoor picks up the theme of global recession and spins a reasonably funny situational satire in Phas Gaye Re Obama. Not unlike this year's sleeper hit Tere Bin Laden in spirit, Kapoor marries the international issue of 2008's economic meltdown with the local mafia and a degenerate establishment in, what appears to be, Uttar Pradesh. The characters are sketched with precision although the production suffers from ABCS (acute budgetary constraints syndrome). 

Rajat Kapoor is Om Shastri, the down-and-out NRI who's come back to sell his ancestral haveli to repay his debts back in the US. Except, when he arrives in the village, everyone presumes he's loaded. And he's not the only one with financial troubles. Small-time goon, Bhaisaab (Sanjay Mishra, hilarious) hasn't had a good run with his kidnapping business (the chosen path to glory for most of the underworld characters in the film) and is struggling to keep his outfit afloat. His flunky, Anni (Manu Rishi, outstanding) is obsessed with America and Obama and even gets the group to chant "Yes we can" to motivate them in their latest mission -- to kidnap Shastri and extort a handsome sum from his family.

The screenplay moves along briskly throughout the first half, slowing down only occasionally. The dialogues sparkle with ready wit, often at the expense of the great American nation, which is implored, on more than one occasion, to not export its problems to the rest of the world. The film's finest scene has Anni getting a dressing down from his English teacher (he's attending a local coaching class to brush up his English before he takes flight to the land of his dreams) in a version of the language that would send the Queen scampering in horror. 

Shastri devices a scheme to wriggle out of his predicament and one thing leads to another -- he exchanges many hands, including a man-hater called Munni bai (Neha Dhupia) who has an all-woman crew with names like Kareena, Deepika, Rani, Preity etc.  Before long he ends up in the farmhouse of the local MLA (Amole Gupte), who, we're told, has actually organised the kidnapping business along corporate lines.

The local cop peddles the prized booty to various contenders; each of the dons has an air of pomposity, the degree of which is determined by their seniority. Hence, Bhaisaab, who's lament about the slowdown is often accompanied by wailing background music, must get ridiculed and poked about, while his subordinate Anni, meets with a much worse fate. Shastri wryly observes at one point that thanks to this financial crisis, he's ended up scheming for money with these gangsters and now they're all on the same side of the law. 

Towards the end, there's a scene in a police station where we see grim photographs of Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, while a portrait of a smiling Mahatma Gandhi stands at a distance observing the proceedings. The image says it all. Adding an instrumental version of "Hum honge kamyab" to the background, overstates the point.