Phas Gaya Re Obama - Review

In a year filled with smaller films(Peepli Live, Udaan) making a notable presence in the Indian film industry, here comes another unusual fare of an interesting story mashed up with a lot of brilliant actors. Does it pack the right punch?
While it does have quite a few laughs, it isn't a winner all the way.

PGRO tackles the problem of recession in an comical manner. Sanjay Mishra is a village goon who kidnaps people. Sadly, none of them have the money to pay him hence he's left sitting with his gang plotting a big coup. In comes Rajat Kapoor, an NRI who's lost it all in the global meltdown. He's come back to sell his ancestral property to salvage his life, only to get kidnapped by the gang. Then start the crazy shenanigans where Rajat goes from one place to another, encountering man-hating Munni Gangster(Neha Dhupia), corrupt politician Amole Gupte and an Obama loving croonie to keep him company.

The film, while packing in doses of laughter does tend to drag a bit. With clever writing, it does have all the ingredients for a great film but something is missing. A little more spunk coupled with better dialogues would have added superb value to the well written situations.

The film has some superb performances. Sanjay Mishra is astounding as the frustrated gangster with no money. Neha Dhupia is ok. Amole Gupte and Manu Rishi are great. A few smaller cameos are brilliant, especially the english teacher and the policeman. The leading man Rajat Kapoor is good, though he shows no difference in performance to any role played by him till today.

Director Subhash Kapoor has a well written & well executed product which works in many areas. Though the promos didn't quite enthrall movie, the film by itself was much better. Somehow it is a bit stretched and 10-15 min of trimming would have made it a great watch.

To sum it up, Phas Gaya re Obama is your perfect DVD watch. It has sequences that make you hold your stomach and laugh but also got portions where you're left simply bored. I recommend all to watch this, though it can be given a miss in the cinema halls.

Rating: 3/5