Salman's READY to entertain

Salman Khan’s voiceover in shudh Hindi, introducing his family in the opening frame of Ready sets the tone of the film – a bumbling, modern comedy full of pop cultural references and gaffes. Salman plays Prem Kapoor, a sworn bachelor, till Sanjana, played by Asin Thottumkal, comes into his life in the guise of Pooja Malhotra – a girl the family guru has highly recommended his family to get him married to. The story is about Sanjana’s escape from her maternal uncles who are some sort of Bangkok mafia sans Thai henchmen, straight into the worked-out arms of Prem. Both the uncles desire to have her married off to their respective brother-in-laws, in a bid to outdo each other and swindle her inheritance of Rs 200 crore. But she outsmarts the uncles, who are like male versions of Cinderella’s wicked step-sisters, and runs away landing up in the Kapoor household as their future bahu-to-be. Hate turns into love between Prem and her after he discovers she is Sanjana, and she comes clean with her runaway story, with some very well written and funny dialogues in some ludicrous scenes – especially the one where she is flung out of a car and is hanging out on a tree branch, looking straight into deathvalley, albeit with foliage and flowers. “Just hanging around” is what Salman chortles as saves her with one bicep, naturally! [caption id=“attachment_20124” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Salman Khan’s Ready would be in theatres on Friday. Rupak De Chowdhuri/Reuters”]  [/caption] The first half of the film is interesting, with the assortment of gregarious and loud characters (Lahiri, the unsuspecting motorist victim) ranging from the ordinary to downright bizarre (the mafia uncles of the girl) coming to life, but it is the second half that sees Salman in his post-Dabanng cool avatar with lines like “Main modern zamaane ka kutta hoon aur yeh meri kutiya hai” and the very Rajshri styled line “Koi toh rok lo” which will be incorporated in pop lingo by the time the weekend’s over. A Dabangg favourite move, where he puts his glasses on the back of his shirt, has also been incorporated into this film. And the ‘abs’olute money shot in the film is where his shervani comes off displaying “the body”. It is entertaining and the producers are counting their cash with the heavy advance bookings all over India. Salman is the Khan du jour and anything and everything he does screams “score” right now! And as in Dabangg, where he played himself in uniform more or less, he remains Salman in this enactment too – the star. Asin could have done with a better makeup artist. She doesn’t look half as beautiful, as she really is, in the film. The wedding song and dance towards the end could have been avoided as it just lengthens the dramatic climax. Just wondering, when Asin comes into his house bedecked in wedding finery from the Bangkok airport, she explains she doesn’t have any luggage as she was “coming home” but given that the home housed three large-sized women adorning sarees and Indian clothes, where did she get the modern wardrobe of jeans and skirts from? Net-a-porter maybe? Maybe not, because she wasn’t wearing designer togs. Also, Akhilendra Mishra who plays one of the plaited mafia uncles of Asin, has a decibel pitch that would deafen a dog five kilometres outside of the theatre and is very reminiscent of a Mahabharat character. Mahesh Manjrekar who plays Salman’s father, does a complete Utpal Dutt, but engagingly so nevertheless. The guy who plays Lahiri in the film, is a comic star. His body language and witty dialogues crack you up the minute he enters a sequence. Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn, Arbaaz Khan, Chunky Panday and Kangna Ranaut do quickie cameos in the first few frames of the film. Zarine Khan matches steps with Salman in the Character Dheela song and looks pretty, but there’s no sizzle in her shimmies and shakes. And she really shouldn’t pout – it’s weird on her. See the film if you love Salman Khan’s face and torso – and his impeccable comic streak in action. It promises the most discerning viewer in the audience a couple of laughs. But if you want to stay at home sulking about the weather, sun or rain, then wait for it to come out on television later on and see it for free, grumpy mood intact. After Dabangg’s huge success, Salman is invincible at the box office and this is what Ready is cashing in on. The effort put into the film shows with multiple producers on board - Sohail Khan Productions, Kishen and Bhushan Kumar of T-Series, One Up Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. and Rawail Grandsons Entertainment & Software Pvt. Ltd. The film is directed by Anees Bazmi. Salman was spotted watching Ready for about 20 minutes at a screening in PVR Juhu Thursday evening.