Khichdi
-
The
Movie
is
no
different
in
spirit,
cast,
gags
and
skits
from
Khichdi
-
The
Serial.
The
cast
is
the
same.
And
that's
a
blessing.
The
enormously
talented
Gujarati
actors
are
irreplaceable
in
their
proclivity
to
convey
irreverent
brain
dead
humour,
as
applied
to
the
gloriously
dumb
Parekh
family
that
seems
like
a
parody
of
Sooraj
Barjatya's
joint-family
system.
The
family
system
goes
down
the
cistern
with
a
loud
splash,
as
the
gags
swamp
the
big-screen
with
the
same
velocity
of
iconoclasm
as
the
serial.
And
that's
where
the
trouble
lies.
While
it's
delightful
to
watch
Anang
Desai
(as
the
patriarch)
and
his
brood,
Supriya
Pathak
(goofily
idiotic
in
her
literal
perception
of
life's
basic
tenets),
Rajiv
Mehta
(so
blissfully
un-intellectual
you
wonder
which
came
first,
the
Naive
Gujjus
or
the
jokes
about
them)
and
the
teekha-faced
Nimisha
Vakharia
as
the
family's
daughter,
whoop
it
up
grandly
as
a
family
of
oblivious
ignoramuses,
the
movie
version
of
Khichdi
does
not
take
us
any
further
than
the
serial.
The
humour
could
have
gone
an
extra
mile
in
the
larger
space
provided.
The
presentation
could
have
paraded
a
greater
finesse
than
the
sets
on
television
can
afford,
and
the
dialogues
could
do
with
some
fresh
polishing
up.
Director
Aatish
Kapadia
chooses
to
let
the
characters
from
the
serial
be
exactly
the
same
in
the
film.
For
added
cinematic
value
there's
a
love
story
between
the
scion
of
the
Parekh
family
Himanshu
(Jamnadas
Majethia)
and
the
Punjabi
girl-next-door,
who
lives
in
family
where
all
the
47
family
members
are
called
'Parminder'.
The
Parminder
female
heir
of
the
family
meets
her
(mindless)
match
in
Himanshu.
They
want
a
filmy
love
story
for
themselves.
Go
buy
the
cliches
in
the
humour
store.
The
comic
conflagration
just
about
manages
to
prevent
an
imminent
collapse.
The
material
is
too
thin
to
hold
up
a
feature
film.
The
jokes
are
more
prone
to
evoke
titters
than
genuine
laughter.
And
yet
the
actors
make
the
Parekh
family's
overpowering
silliness
look
engaging.
Though
this
is
a
film
about
moronic
people,
it
secretes
a
level
of
intelligence
in
its
treatment
and
execution.
What
Khichdi
-
The
Movie
tells
us
finally
is
that
hollow
people
do
not
constitute
a
hollow
film.
To
portray
this
all-encompassing
level
of
dumbness,
the
director
has
to
rise
above
his
characters' low
IQ
level.
Aatish
Kapadia
just
about
manages
that.
Story first published: Wednesday, October 6, 2010, 16:12 [IST]