Yeh Mera India Movie Review by Sputnik

Director: N. Chandra
Cast: Anupam Kher, Atul Kulkarni, Milind Gunaji, Perizaad Zorabian, Purab Kohli, Smily Suri, Parveen Dabbas, Rajit Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav, Sarika, Sayaji Shinde, Seema Biswas, Vijay Raaz

Yeh Mera India is inspired from the 2004 Oscar winner Crash which dealt with racial bias. The movie deals with communal bias, caste bias, class bias, gender bias, lingual bias and immigrant bias that plaque India’s society. It’s the story of one day in the life of 12 people from different strata. The movie is about a bihari immigrant, a cop, communist, jihadi, politician, call center employee and owner, maid, judge, hospital owner, a TV channel boss.

Some scenes are very good like the one where Seema Biswas sees Sarika searching through her stuff or the scene where Seema listens to Sarika’s conversation and wants to hit her or the scene where Rajpal Yadav is taken for a ride by Atul Kulkarni or the scene where Rajpal saves Shayaji Shinde or the scene where Parveen Dabbas confronts Vijay Raaz or the one where Parveen Dabbas responds to some guys comments about terrorism.

Some scenes are very tacky. The whole Rajit Kapoor misbehaving with his call centre stuff looks too farfetched with the forced smooch and all. Smley Surli’s constant hollering at Purab and the scene where he hits her back is ridiculous. There is a scene where a guy is preaching jihad in front of a mike and there are hardly a dozen people. The whole track of the guy whose car is stolen is half baked and could easily be edited out. The sudden change of heart in most of the characters seems contrived.

Rajpal Yadav and Seema Biswas are excellent. Sarika is good and Parveen Dabbas is decent. Anupam Kher is ok but doesn’t have much of a role. Rajit Kapoor does not suit his role and overacts. Vijay Raaz, Milind Gunaji and Atul Kulkarni are just ok. Sayaji Shinde overacts. Smily Suri is annoying with her crying and screaming. Purab has a really weak role.

N Chandra’s direction ranges from excellent in some scenes to tacky in some. Some scenes look like they are from some 80s movie. There are scenes where people gather and clap or there is a change of heart suddenly. The plot had great potential but inconsistent direction mars the movie. The movie does tackle a lot of serious issues but one gets a feeling that N Chandra could not handle all the characters and sub plots. In the end it is just an average movie.

Rating: 2 / 5 (Average)