Ishqiya: Wickedly funny

Rating: 3.5 out of 5*

Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Vidya Balan, Arshad Warsi and Salman Shahid

Director: Abhishek Chaubey

Two crooks on the run, Khaalujaan (Naseer) and Babban (Arshad) arrive at beautiful widow Krishna’s (Vidya Balan) doorstep. They tell her they were late hubby’s good friends at one point of time. The duo has actually run away from their Jiju Mushtaq (Salman Shahid) after duping him of a huge sum of money and is hiding at Krishna’s house to save their lives from him. But Mushtaq arrives at Krishna’s house and warns them to give back his money in 15 days or face death. The duo then on Krishna’s insistence plans to kidnap a mill owner for the same. Meanwhile, Krishna begins her flirting game with the two. While Khaalujaan loses his heart to her, Babban ends up getting physically involved with her. But then Krishna has her own agenda which the two are completely unaware of which may leave them in a shock!

Debutante director Abhishek Chaubey has been a Vishal Bharadwaj assistant for almost all his films and has co-written them as well. This explains the reason why throughout the film you keep getting the film that you watching a Vishal Bharadwaj film. Abhishek has handled the film like a pro and it doesn’t appear his first effort at all. However, he takes a bit of a time before the interval to set things up but post it the grip is tight and narrative just perfect. With the film set in eastern UP, the dialogues are as real as they can get. However, the use of expletives and double meaning dialogues could have been lessened. The smooching scene between Vidya and Arshad is quiet long too.

Naseeruddin Shah is just excellent playing Khaalujaan and you can’t think of anyone else in his place for the role. Arshad playing completely to the gallery is in top form after a long time. Vidya is in a completely opposite role to her recently released Paa pleasantly shocks with her range and uninhibited act. Pakistani actor Salman Shahid last seen in Kabul Express is impressive. The village kid playing Arshad’s buddy is too good.

Vishal Bharadwaj’s music of the film is already topping the charts with the pick of the lot being Dil To Bachcha Hai Jee and Ibn-e-Batuta. Vidya’s hilarious in the Ibn-e-Batuta number.

Watch Ishqiya for its crazy zany characters and excellent direction.

-Sampurn Media