Bheja fried, boiled or sunny side up?

With a name like Bheja Fry, one wouldn't need to take too wild a leap of the imagination to peg it as a comedy. However, the question to give one sleepless nights is what kind: would it be a tacky David Dhawan-Govinda type comedy with inane storylines and silly humour or a whacky, Rahul Bose (remember Jhankaar Beats and Pyaar ke Side Effects) type comedy with tongue-in-cheek humour!

Luckily for us, director Sagar Ballary gives us an honest to goodness comedy of errors. The movie, lacking star power, depends solely on an interesting storyline and good acting (hallelujah to that!) to carry it through. And carry it does on the able shoulders of Rajat Kapoor as Ranjeet Thadani and Vinay Pathak as Bharat Bhushan. Thadani and his friends have a passtime, a bit cruel but mostly harmless fun. They invite a quirky but not too bright personality to a Friday dinner and entertain themselves with his antics but do not let on that he's the designated joker. Yes, welcome to life of the rich and the bored! Thadani is a director of a music company with oodles of money (mostly black) and Bharat Bhushan is an Income Tax officer with one abiding passion: Bollywood songs and trivia and unknown to him, he is the designated joker for that Friday's dinner. What happens next is a series of mishaps because of which Thadani is forced to spend the Friday evening with a sprained back, an absconding and possibly unfaithful wife (played by Sarika) and Mr Bharat Bhushan. In his quest to locate his wife, Thadani makes the mistake of elisting Mr Bhushan's help. A comedy of error follows where Thadani is forced to befriend his wife's first husband (and incidentally his one time friend, played by Milind Soman!), invite another Income Tax officer, Asif Merchant, to his house in order to get an address of a pirated CD seller and get slapped by his "nymphomaniac" girl friend!

If there was one flaw, it was the absolute caricaturisation of Asif's character (played by Ranvir Shorey). But I couldn't get a handle on what the caricature was based on. However, the rivalry between Asif and Bharat Bhushan over India-Pakistan cricket matches was a treat to watch. While the politically correct might take offence and accuse the director of pandering to the Hindutva brigade by showing Asif as a Pakistan team supporter, the more discerning would hopefully see the humour in it. The fact that Bharat Bhushan and Asif are also best of friends and Bhushan characterises Asif as one of the most honest and keen eyed officers in the IT office might act as hints.

But, all things considered, its a nice, fun and above all intelligent movie. May their tribe increase!