Myself confused!

Jasmine Singh

Film: Myself Pendu 

‘Myself lost’ after seeing Punjabi film Myself Pendu. This is the exact feeling that seeps in your system after watching the film! In fact, there are so many ‘myself’ questions and ‘myself’ adjectives that come to mind after watching this Surinder Rihal directed film.

Starring singer Preet Harpal, Ather Habib, Jaswinder Bhalla, Upasana Singh, Satinder Satti and Sayali Bhagat in the lead roles, the film makes a complete ‘myself fool’ of the entire story, plot and also of the actors.

The storyline of the film is established close to the second half. It doesn’t lead to anything interesting or even close to it though! A generous mix of many Bollywood films Andaaz Apna Apna (mistaken identity of Karishma and Raveena), Aankhen (Govinda and Chunkey Pandey starrer), Myself Pendu could have been given a better shape, had the director not taken the jumleybaazi clue from the Hindi film Khubsoorat (Rekha and Kishore Kumar starrer) and had the dialogues been a little more than spewing jokes, one after the other.

The story of the film comes from Garry Grewal, who should now be watching more Bollywood films and create a record of writing a film inspired by at least ten Hindi films!

The film is a string of forced laughter moments; it is a warning sign for a great actor-comedian Jaswinder Bhalla, who is hell-bent on not coming out of the Chankaata mould. In this film, he plays a Haryanvi don sans the turban. This look somehow takes away quiet a bit of his charm. Upasana Singh, yet another fine hand at comedy, is reducing herself to being a centre of useless comedy.

We now move on to the actresses, whom you don’t see much on screen, thankfully. A word of advice for Satinder Satti, you are a storehouse of sher-o-shayari but this wasn’t a stage show, it is a film, we repeat a Punjabi film, which means apart from looking pretty, you are expected to act. We repeat, act. Is Sayali Bhagat listening? And what’s with these outrageous dresses and suits they flaunt. Now for some pendu talk- Preet Harpal, a great singer wasted to the tee. If not acting, he could have at least paid attention to his dresses— anything but those red pants, please! As for the other actor, how about taking some personality development classes, which gives part time lessons in acting?

Everything and anything is possible in Myself Pendu, like for instance a police officer is shot and the bullet hits right below his shoulder. The policeman after taking the bullet, calmly talks about his journey, does all the thanking and walks away to get some medicine—dawa daaru. Myself don’t know what to make of it! Neither the school teacher, who outrageously flirts, nor the actress, nor the actors, nor the forced comedian can make myself feel less confused after watching Myself Pendu!