Film: Bumper Draw
Cast: Rajpal Yadav, Zakir Hussain, Narendar Bedi, Rushad Rana, Subrata Datta, Omkarnath Manikpuri, Bomi Dotiwala
Director: Irshad Khan
A well-intentioned comedy of errors, fashioned on the lines of Priyadarshan’s hits, this film has a central narrator , an ageing Parsi gentleman, Pestonji( Homi Dotiwala) narrating his trysts with avaricious common folk, to a group of TV journalists assembled at his bungalow- which happens to be at the root of all his ills.
The parsi gentleman is not cash rich but is in possession of an old Bungalow property coveted by his best friend and the latter’s son (Rushad Rana). Fed-up with their shenanigans to claim his property, he runs away and falls neatly into the hands of a trio desperately in need of money.
Faroque (Rajpal Yadav) is a cab driver, William Visa wala (Sunbrata Datta) has been swindled by his girl friend- to the tune of 10 lakhs and is now desperately looking for a way to pay up those he promised visas to. Gaali Baba (Zakir Hussain) is the soothsayer with an unusual talent of giving the choicest of gaalis which turn out to be good omens for his clients.
Komal Bai, Inspector Parab, Haricharan, Waman Dabbawala, Dr YIM Bedi, Sunderlal, Rafiq are the various other claimants for the loot they expect to get as reward for returning the old Parsi gentleman to his oppressors.
The film has intermittent moments of levity and begins quite well. Unfortunately the attempts to ply humour becomes strained with overdone slap-stick and extreme verbosity. Characters keep cropping up at William’s abode for no rhyme or reason. There’s no justification for the manner in which the screenplay adds characters and motives for those inclined to the reward.
Rajpal Yadav starts off well but veers towards over-the-top soon enough. To some extent Narendar Bedi and Zakir Hussain enliven the show but after a point even they seem to have run out of tricks. So repetition and tedium become mainstay here.
