You can laugh your heart out

Manpriya

There are a couple of things that director Smeep Kang has mastered the art of by now. The guy who resuscitated Pollywood with his iconic Carry On Jatta retains his signature brand of humour in Band Vaaje too. Comedy of errors and the resultant chaos is pretty much what draws the crowds to the ticket windows and which is precisely what they get. 

Band Vaaje is the story of essentially Inder (Binnu Dhillon), a Birmingham-based bachelor who has trouble finding a girl, courtesy his finicky grandmother, played to perfection by Nirmal Rishi and his elder brother played by Smeep Kang himself. Her desire to have Inder settled with a nice Indian Punjabi girl is all the more strengthened by her dislike of the Pakistani Diaspora settled around them.  

As Smeep Kang says, they need a girl, who takes a dupatta on her head, can cook saag to perfection, can spell all the months and their names in Punjabi…In short, as Ghuggi retorts, ‘a phulkari clad Angelina Jolie’. 

As a guy desperate to find a bride, Binnu Dhillon’s character instantly reminds you of the one in Vadhayiyaan Ji Vadhayiyaan. But trust Binnu Dhillon to spit the same dialogue twice and yet not repeat himself. Just leave the brains behind. It’s more fun that way.  

Gurpreet Ghuggi, as the marriage counselor Kashmir Singh Waraich, who even slips his visiting cards to much married women in the trams, only adds to the otherwise unbelievable script. 

The songs haven’t been added for the heck of it, but a few numbers in-between are totally forgettable. The film also scores a point or two on sending out subtle messages of national unity. 

If the mark of a good Bollywood film is that it looks just like a Hollywood flick, and the same logic extends to Pollywood, then this one scores a point or two on cinematography, which could easily be a Bollywood film. Each frame is easy on the eye. Enter the lady love and the comedy that ensues in the process of Binnu trying to woo Bilkis Ahmed (Mandy Takhar), a girl from Lahore, who stays with her late father’s best Punjabi friend (Jaswinder Bhalla). Imagine Binnu Dhillon even manages to land a cook’s job in her parental house to woo her. Like we said, it’s more fun if you leave the brains behind. Where is the story heading is anyone’s guess. Just when you expect the laugh riot to pause or at least lose speed after interval, you’re mistaken. If you are not stingy with laughter and not exacting with logic, this one’s just for you. 

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