It is now clearly apparent from where the timing of comedy that has made Ranbir Kapoor a heart throb of the nation comes from, it is genes and Rishi Kapoor has underlined it with a consummate performance in DO DOONI CHAAR. It is more than twenty years that Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor acted together if one discounts her appearance in LOVE AAJ KAL.
DO DOONI CHAAR is a film that follows in the tradition of comedy films which Dibakar Banerjee brought in for the audience, its focus centered around Delhi and the middle class and lower middle class background. Rishi Kapoor has literally carried the whole film on his back with superb comic timing and owing primarily to his performance, DO DOONI CHAAR could indeed turn out to be a surprise package in the long run.
It is a film which talks about the mismatch that the average middle class in India is besotted with, primarily the urge to graduate from a two-wheeler to a four wheeler to gain acceptability in the family as also acquire a social status in the neighborhood and among the relatives. Maruti 800 may have stopped being manufactured, but it still is a lingo used in Delhi and in around Punjab connoting advancement in social status. Still in this part of the country, a cold drink is a Camp, a two-wheeler is a Bajaj scooter (which also has been faced out), and the first car is a Marrutti- indeed that is how it is pronounced.
It is the quest for a four wheeler that is at the focus of DO DOONI CHAR. Incidentally, the film is a telling comment on the status of teachers in our country and the way we look at them, undermining the fact that they determine our future by guiding them. Normally, a teacher's family still continues to oscillate between ideals and trying to avoid the temptation of being corrupt, though family might be dropping subtle hints to do so, and this is the core theme of DO DOONI CHAR.
For a change the film also has a suggestion for the students to create a fan base for teachers through a Facebook page, their pointing to use the new emerging tools of information technology to pay tribute, through the Facebook page created for Rishi Kapoor. One only hopes that more and more students would seek inspiration from this suggestion and through the Facebook fan page try to create opportunities for their teachers so that their high ideals are not compromised and they continue to create role models for the future. If this is done, then the purpose of DO DOONI CHAAR would indeed be served. One also hopes that more and more directors would come forward and tap this new found comedy confidence that Rishi Kapoor has displayed in DO DOONI CHAAR.
