Andaz Apna Apna

For the longest time I've meant to watch Andaz Apna Apna (AAA) because of everything I have read about it . AAA has a cultish, iconic status among desi movie buffs who understand Hindi. Fourteen years too late, I did watch it a few days ago and wondered why someone would recommend watching it once a week - once was more than enough for me.

Comedy is one of my favorite genres and I know good Hindi. With that combination, I should have figured out the deal about AAA but unfortunately it did not register with me. Maybe I lack the requisite knowledge and interest in Bollywood trivia it takes to "get" AAA. Now, Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron was a movie to remember not so much for the sheer heights of absurdity that it reached but for the finesse with which it was done.

Like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron, AAA attempts satire as well but misses out almost completely on subtlety unless you count the numerous self references to Bollywood cliches and characters. Without any real substance or original storyline, that tactic grows old pretty soon and there is not much to look forward to.

Past half-time, watching AAA is like drinking a can of soda many hours after the fizz has died. The characters have repeated themselves several times over by then. You are left with the two Khans gyrating through their two-dimensional characters, the leading ladies vying with each other at being the most doltish while the villains hang around like random fillers with borrowed lines and ideas. Though everyone in the movie delivers some really funny lines and you do get a few laughs out of it, AAA is no Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron.