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Movie review: Despite good actors, Total Siyapaa is a waste of time

Hindustan Times | BySweta Kaushal, New Delhi
Mar 10, 2014 04:02 PM IST

Director Eeshwar Niwas does not deliver the fun riot you expect from Total Siyapaa. Even veteran actors like Anupam and Kirron Kher and a talented Ali Zafar fail to save the film. TRAILER INSIDE

An Indo-Pak couple fighting the age-old battle within the family, actors like Anupam Kher and Kirron Kher and Ali Zafar (of Tere Bin Laden fame) and writer-producer Neeraj Pandey (of A Wednesday and Special 26 fame) - the promos of Total Siyapaa promised a total fun riot.

Alas, the movie does not live up to the expectations.

SPOILERS AHEAD

The storyline gets a little too stretched and the jokes often fail to evoke laughter in the audience. Several scenes in the movie are too abrupt. For example, we see sudden memory loss and memory gain in Anupam Kher's character, both apparently aimed to create humour. It simply does not work.

You might find this funny, only if a toddler making jokes on pregnancy and death makes you laugh.

Inspired by Spanish comedy Only Human, the film has a few funny moments. However, debutante director Eeshwar Niwas does not manage to maintain the tempo for long.


Sample a few high points in Total Siyapaa:

Talking about her Pakistani boyfriend (Ali Zafar), Yami's character tells her mom (Kirron Kher), "Humaare bich kuch hai (We have something between us)," to which the mom says, "Hum use problem kehte hain. (We call that a problem)."

Yami's brother-in-law is a well-known miser. He gives missed calls to his estranged wife and buys a day-old flowers and closing-time pastries so he can get them cheap.

During one of the many fights Yami and Ali have, the latter tells his 'Indian' girlfriend, " Kuch bhatke hue logo ke karan saare Pakistani terrorist nai hote. Jitne tumhare yaha scams hain utne to humare yaha terrorist attacks bhi nahi hue honge! (Not all Pakistanis are terrorist. You have more scams in your country than the number of terrorist attacks we have had.)"

The filmmaker, however, should be applauded for striking the right balance between Indians and Pakistanis living in London. There is no India-Pakistan fight for real in the movie. In fact, in a sequence where a coin is flipped to decide who will beat up an Englishman first - the Indians or Pakistanis - we do not get to see the coin. One moment the coin is in the air and the next moment we see the man totally beaten up.

Veteran actors like Anupam Kher, Kirron Kher and Ali Zafar (who has proved his mettle with a comedy in Tere Bin Laden), are also unable to lift the film as they have little scope to do so.

The promos are actually the best thing about Total Siyapaa. You should certainly skip this one.

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