Of the recent lot, I am reminded of 'Loins of Punjab',a movie that parodied the NRI population in the U.S . The director, Manish Acharya, chose not to mix satire and questions of morality. The movie stayed away from evoking judgements on it's characters. I am not saying that the audience couldn't have an opinion,they could, but the movie did nothing that would enforce a certain line of thought.
'The President is Coming',co-written by the writer of 'Loins..', follows the footsteps of it's predecessor in it's presentation. The two movies rely on a competition as a central platform where the story unfolds.
'The President is Coming' is about the one Indian who is to be selected to shake hands with the then U.S president George W. Bush during his 2006 visit to the country. What makes the movie unique apart from it's 'mockumentary' style is it's characters who come from different sections of an urban Indian population. Six finalists are short-listed for the shake hand. One would be finally chosen.
What happens when a holier-than-thou writer from Calcutta(Konkona Sen), a wealthy stock broker from Mumbai, a male chauvinist social worker from Nagpur, a pretentious voice-accent trainer from Gurgaon, a bimbo from Delhi(Ira Dubey) and a Microsoft nerd from Bangalore compete to shake hands with the president? A laugh riot! Adding flavour to the khichidi is the kleptomaniac head of a P.R agency contracted by the U.S embassy in Mumbai to select the one.
As the competition progresses, the characters sub-consciously bring in their own prejudices. Highly motivated to be selected the winner, all of them give their best shot at instant fame. You know it's a gut-buster when on being asked how they intend to select the Indian to shake hands with the prez, the PR chief says: 'The American way...Reality TV!'. And what follows is a gruelling competition running for rounds. The movie might feel a little repetitive towards the end but it is a minor shortcoming and can be easily traded for a laugh marathon. Watch out for A Namaste gesturing Bush mannequin at the end!
Watch the movie for timepass. Don't take it too seriously and you won't be disappointed!
Some funny quotes:
Ajay Karlekar, the social worker:'I can say phuck and all uh!'
Kapil Dev, the stock broker: 'It's not like famous peepul are someone else no. They are peepul'
Archana Kapoor, the millionaire daughter: 'Dad, is it ok for like a strange guy to touch me...yeah, he's in uniform'
Maya, the writer: 'Please don't touch my brests'
And the best of all...
Ramesh, the geek: 'You want to ride on my love machine a?'
