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Rahul's parents and his old Aunt, Bua. With decent production values, the settings and the frames are realistic. Yogesh Jani's cinematography captures the rural milieu very aptly.

Miss Tanakpur Haazir Ho

STARRING: Annu Kapoor, Hrishitaa Bhatt, Om Puri, Ravi Kishan, Sanjay Mishra and Rahul Bagga

DIRECTOR: Vinod Kapri *tt,·\ (

Written and Directed by ajournalisttumed-film directorVinod Kapri, Miss TanakpurHaazir Ho is a social satire inspired by true events. The film delves into how numerous, ridiculouslyfalse and blatantly obscure casesare registered in the Indian courts. This vengeancesaga, camoufaged as a comedy, reveals the extent to which some people can stoop and highlights the corruption prevalent in oursystem.

Set in the district ofTanakpur somewhere in Uttar Pradesh, Suvalal

Pradhan (Annu Kapoor) a "10 + 2" educated, village headman and a wannabe politician who often pouts, "Don't take me otherwise" is constantly suspicious of his wife, Maya's (Hrishitaa Bhatt) fidelity, as he is insecure ofhis own virility.

One day, aftercatching hiswife red-handed with her paramour Arjun (Rahul Bagga), he realisesthat his own reputation is at stake. So, seething with anger and revenge on his mind, he accuses Arjun of raping Miss Tanakpur, his buffalo. How he keepsup with this charade,formsthe crux ofthe film.

Whilethe premise is amusing, the plot,treated in a satirical manner, meanders capturing Pradhan's idiosyncrasies.

Annu Kapoorstraight-faced, puts his heart intothe characterSuvalaI Pradhan and essays the rolebrilliantly. His dependencyon hislackey Bhim Singh (Ravi Kishan) and the village Pandit (Sanjay Mishra)forsolutions, createthe required situational comedy.Together, they make a hilarious threesome.

Ravi Kishan, with kohl-rimmed eyes as Suvalal's buffoonish right-hand man, andSanjay Mishra astheconniving and greedy Panditji arethemselves. Though funny in certain scenes, they playstock characters that don't elevate their character-sketches.

Om Puri on the other hand shines as the corrupt police inspector. As always, he is a natural beforethe camera.

Hrishitaa Bhatt as Pradhan'swife hasverylittleto offer, byway of performance. Rahul Bagga as her lover Arjun, has a passive role and manages to evokesympathythrough his effective portrayal. The rest ofthesupporting casttoo isvery expressive, especially

The background score byVinayak Netke alongwith thesongs Naach basanti, Andhera andhera and Sasure ke kaudy /agagay/by music directors Palak Muchhal and SushmitSen meshwell intothe narration.

Whilethe director hastaken pains to dramatisethe reality, he has resorted to some lazy back-hand approach in some scenes. The most notable among the few are theme/a (fair) scene and the busscenein which Arjun's Bua is travelling.Also, his writinglacksthe finesseof a well-researched subject in termsofcharacter-sketches.

Packed with quick retorts, the dialogues are taut and crass.These generate laughter at the intended momentsand will be lapped. up bythe frontbenchers.

Overall, this is a fairly enjoyablefilm, but a tad too lengthy. Although ittackles a universaltruth about India, it has a very local and regional flavourwhich maynot appeal to everyone.

TROY RIBEIRO