Movie Review: Delhi Belly (2011)
July 18, 2011 at 12:19 pm 9 comments
4 Stars (out of 4)
It seems as though the hallmark of American comedies for adults in recent years has been to include as many graphic bodily function gags as possible. It’s why I don’t generally see comedies in the theater: I’m likely to walk out when things get too disgusting.
Delhi Belly, India’s first mainstream foray into Western-style gross-out comedy, comes as a relief because the filmmakers realize that a little goes a long way. By emphasizing quality over volume when it comes to scatological humor, Delhi Belly showcases the genre at its best.
Freelance reporter Tashi (Imran Khan) lives in a filthy apartment with his two pals, photographer Nitin (Kunaal Roy Kapur) and cartoonist Arup (Vir Das). Tashi’s gorgeous but ditzy girlfriend, Sonia (Shenaz Treasurywala), takes a package from a suspicious Russian man in the airport where she works as a flight attendant. Without realizing that the package is full of contraband, Sonia asks Tashi to deliver the package for her so that she can run errands.
Tashi hands the package off to Nitin, who promptly contracts a case of “Delhi belly” (diarrhea) from some unsanitary street food. Nitin asks Arup to deliver the package on his way to the doctor, who’s requested a stool sample from the ailing Nitin. You can guess what happens when Arup makes his deliveries.
Delhi Belly is not a typical Indian film, and not just because of its genre. The dialog is primarily in English, and the plot structure is also more like a Hollywood film. Bucking the standard formula for a two-hour-plus masala picture — split the story into two halves, separated by an intermission — Delhi Belly‘s plot has three acts that run continuously for 100 minutes, sans intermission.
What results from these breaks with Indian cinematic tradition? A damned funny movie. The writing is hilarious, and the dialog generates as many laughs as the physical gags and fart jokes do. Fair warning: even by much looser American ratings standards, this would be an R-rated film. Copious use of the f-word, violence, reference to sex acts and scatological humor make this adults-only fare.
Director Abhinay Deo — who failed to impress with his debut earlier this year, Game — shows a real flair for comedy. The story is well-paced, and Deo uses the camera deftly to exaggerate the ridiculous situations Tashi and his pals find themselves in. The movie’s two musical numbers are hysterical and fit seamlessly into the production.
There’s also an emphasis placed on the relationships between the main characters. The friendship between Tashi, Nitin and Arup never wavers. When Tashi and Nitin meet a hip, cynical fellow journalist named Menaka (Poorna Jagannathan), it’s clear that she fits in with the goofy trio much better than Sonia does. This is a group of misfits we want to see succeed, and great performances by the cast only enhance that desire.
If I had to sum Delhi Belly up in one word, it would be “satisfying.” It has everything I want in a comedy. As long as you can stomach the cuss-words and gross-out gags, this is about as good as it gets.
Links
- Delhi Belly at Wikipedia
- Delhi Belly at IMDb
- Access Bollywood Review of Game
Entry filed under: Reviews. Tags: 2011, Aamir Khan, Abhinay Deo, Bollywood, Delhi Belly, Game, Hindi, Imran Khan, Indian, Kunaal Roy Kapur, Movie Review, Poorna Jagannathan, Runtime, Shenaz Treasurywala, Vir Das.
1. Opening July 15: Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara « Access Bollywood | July 19, 2011 at 3:47 pm
[...] its stellar earnings of $1,232,610 in just two weeks in U.S. theaters, it’s no surprise that Delhi Belly is getting a third week at the Golf Glen 5 and South Barrington 30. Both theaters are carrying over [...]
2. Opening July 22: Singham « Access Bollywood | July 20, 2011 at 11:53 am
[...] theaters are also carrying over Delhi Belly, which has earned $1,427,705 in the U.S. so [...]
3. In Theaters July 29, 2011 « Access Bollywood | July 27, 2011 at 10:21 am
[...] Dobara, which continues to impress with earnings of $2,003,930 in the U.S. in its first two weeks. Delhi Belly gets a fifth week at the Golf Glen [...]
4. In Theaters August 5, 2011 « Access Bollywood | August 3, 2011 at 2:27 pm
[...] Barrington 30, having earned $287,458 in the U.S. so far. The Golf Glen 5 gives a sixth week to Delhi Belly, which has total American earnings of [...]
5. Movie Review: Mere Brother Ki Dulhan (2011) « Access Bollywood | September 13, 2011 at 10:33 pm
[...] My Review of Delhi Belly Share this:StumbleUponLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. [...]
6. Amit | October 10, 2011 at 10:59 am
Even for it’s genre, this movie is gross. If you want to rate it just on the basis of how many times the “F-word” has been used in this movie, then yes, I will give it 5/5. However, no originality by itself is something needs to be considered in a movie. This is nothing but an extremely disgusting attempt of trying to copy a hollywood dirty comedy and try to season it with the theme of slumdog millionaire (show filth and get applause). However, the crew has failed to achieve either. In this effort, the significant attributes of a movie (script and story) have been completely sidetracked. Most importantly, this film potrays bollywood very badly to the audience abroad.
7. Kathy | October 10, 2011 at 11:57 am
Amit, your comment serves as a good warning for people offended by foul language and who aren’t fans of gross-out comedies to avoid Delhi Belly at all costs. I’m not usually a fan of scatological humor myself, but I considered the gross parts of Delhi Belly pretty tame compared to some of the stuff I’ve seen in Hollywood movies (confession: I closed my eyes when the gangster opened up a container expecting to find diamonds). This isn’t a movie for everyone, but I thought it was funny.
8. Amit | October 10, 2011 at 12:13 pm
Thanks for the comments. Yeah, agree this was little funny at times, but all the humor has been stolen from good old bollywood movies. I understand this was intended for international audience, but we do have lot of original (and brilliant) plots to work upon. This movie will cash in india just because the foul language (which is almost absent in Indian movies). However, for example, if you see carefully, the f word is used almost indiscriminately, and not at proper times. Anyway, I have seen a lot of R rated movies and understand this genre. However, my main objection for this movie is lack of any originality, overly (but unnecessarily) used fowl language, and a good plot. It is clear that the production house it trying to prove themselves ‘cool’, but all they did is copied the R rated movies with brains shut, eyes closed and all creativity locked up in a safe. I know they can do it better. That’s where my objection is.
I don’t mean to question anyone’s criticism, but wanted to bring up thIs point. Anyway, thanks again for responding!
9. Best Bollywood Movies of 2011 « Access Bollywood | January 11, 2012 at 3:46 pm
[...] created by Aamir Khan Productions. The company released two intriguing films — Dhobi Ghat and Delhi Belly — with runtimes that clocked in at under two hours long, uncharacteristically brief for [...]