Smeep Kang, the director of JHOOTHA KAHIN KA is a reputed name in Punjabi Cinema and is the man behind some mega blockbusters and hit Punjabi comedies. The theme of mistaken identities has been the favourite of this talented actor turned writer-director since his early directorial ventures such as CHAKK DE PHATTE (2008) [inspired from THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT MAY (1998)]. And he continued with the same in more than 4 films of his, including a Punjabi remake of ANGOOR or Shakespeare’s The Comedy of Errors as DOUBLE DI TROUBLE (2014) featuring Dharmendra and Gippy Grewal in lead roles.
However, the director cannot be blamed for his repetitive Punjabi films as when he did try to break the pattern with a thoughtful (official) remake of a bold Malayalam film SHUTTER in the form of an unusual and courageous Punjabi project LOCK (2016), then it got rejected by the viewers and not many went to see it in the theaters.
Having said that, I still personally didn’t expect Smeep to repeat the same theme in his latest Hindi project too especially when his last attempt in Hindi (SECOND HAND HUSBAND/2015) had not worked, despite having an interesting comic plot and a stellar cast yet again featuring Dharmendra in a key role.
Knowing the director’s body of work and his actual untapped potential, I wished to see a great Hindi comedy based on a fresh subject, but for some reasons best known to him, Smeep chose to mix up two of his own Punjabi films to make JHOOTHA KAHIN KA, probably becoming the first reverse instance of a Hindi film getting inspired from Punjabi Cinema.
So where the basic plot of the film has been borrowed from one of his biggest Punjabi blockbuster CARRY ON JATTA (2012), the climax has been clued from his BHAJI IN PROBLEM (2013) wherein too the entire mess between the characters explodes at a wedding function, which happens to be the best part of both BHAJI IN PROBLEM and JHOOTHA KAHIN KA to be fair.
Interestingly even CARRY ON JATTA had an inspired plot earlier exploited in a Hindi comedy KUCCH TO GADBAD HAI (2004) which in turn had got it all from the original Malayalam movie CHAKKIKOTHA CHANKARAN released way back in 1989.
Coming back to JHOOTHA KAHIN KA, it wasn’t any wise decision to yet again try the same theme of mistaken identities in a Hindi project too, since the concept has been repeatedly used here by Aneez Bazmee, Rohit Shetty and Sajid Khan in their various projects released in the last two decades. Plus it was earlier also the favourite of Hrishikesh Mukherjee resulting in some cult Hindi comedies still famous for their outstanding content and execution. Hence, the theme had nothing new or unseen for the Hindi audience.
Yes, no doubt a good comedy can still work even if it is based on a predictable and seen before plot supported by some enjoyable performances. But sadly JHOOTHA KAHIN KA isn’t any such film as it rarely offers the expected entertainment in its entire (tediously long) duration of about 133 minutes. The overall spirit of the film remains quite dull and the narration seems to be outdated missing the novelty factor. The witty one-liners and sexist jokes in its dialogues rarely work and the young actors in the lead remain unable to make any kind of impression including Omkar Kapoor, Nimisha Mehta, Rucha Vaidya and Sunny Singh of SONU KE TITU KI SWEETY fame.
On the other hand, the presence of veterans like Rishi Kapoor, Jimmu Sheirgill, Rakesh Bedi, Rajesh Sharma, Manoj Joshi and Lillet Dubey does help but that too only towards the end, when they are all together in a confusing wedding sequence.
Overall, though ‘mistaken identity confusion’ is known to be his forte, Smeep Kang yet again misses a major opportunity given in Hindi cinema and that’s really not fair as the director does have it in him as proved by his Punjabi blockbusters.
At the same time, a lesser understood fact remains that Punjabi comedies largely rely on the verbal conversation and dialogues, also being the key feature of Pakistani comedy plays (largely followed by the writers here). But the same tactics do not work in Hindi cinema - wherein a much superior mix of verbal and slap-stick comedy is required to engage and charm the viewers.
Explaining it further, friends into watching Punjabi movies would readily understand the difference watching JHOOTHA KAHIN JA, in which the dialogues rendered by Rajesh Sharma standing beside Rishi Kapoor never work in the same way as they do when rendered by Binnu Sharma standing beside Jaswinder Bhalla in a Punjabi film. That, in fact is the major reason why an almost similar execution (and translation) doesn’t really work in the Hindi Comedies.
Anyway, one cannot deny the truth that the team’s present venture is not up to the mark despite many renowned performers, but hopefully they will learn and make-up for this mistake in their next Hindi project finding a fresh subject. On a concluding note, the film can still be tried as a light hearted comedy, as and when released on an online portal.
Rating : 1.5 / 5
