It’s an open secret that Bollywood movies are often heavily
“inspired” by their Hollywood counterparts. The plagiarism is never
quite as direct as people assume, though; even Bichhoo, which was close to a shot by shot remake of The Professional,
was an entirely different movie thematically because of a few minor
tweaks in premise. It’s also not uncommon for a Bollywood film to
combine inspiration from a number of sources. For example, Nehlle Pe Dellha (2007) draws from such diverse sources as Weekend at Bernie’s and Weekend at Bernie’s II.
Balram (Shakti Kapoor), a hotel manager and our corpse to be, has a problem. The hotel is failing, so his niece Puja (Bipasha Basu), the hotel’s owner, plans to sell off the family’s other properties and open a restaurant in Mauritius. (I’m not sure how this will save the hotel, but that’s her plan.) She doesn’t know that Balram is the reason the hotel is failing; he’s been embezzling for years, and the other family properties Puja is depending on no longer exist. After Puja is hustled out of the office, the hotel’s accountant blackmails Balram, who gives him a quick down payment and then summons his three pet goons (Mukesh Rishi, Aasif Shaikh, and Shiva) to deal with the problem.
The accountant is killed, and conveniently dies in front of petty criminals Johnny (Sanjay Dutt) and Jimmy (Saif Ali Khan), living just long enough to reveal that there are 30 crore hidden in the hotel. (That’s three hundred million rupees, which works out to a little more than seven million dollars.) Johnny and Jimmy have never gotten along; Johnny is a con artist, and has always looked down on Jimmy’s burglary as cowardly, while Jimmy maintains that they are working the same job, just different shifts. The two sensibly agree that this situation is too dangerous for them, and they go their separate ways.
The next day, Johnny and Jimmy separately con their way onto the hotel wait staff, and start looking for the money. (While the film takes great pains to establish that Jimmy is a burglar, after his introduction he never burgles again, and functions strictly as another con artist.) The pair spend some time trying to outmaneuver one another, before finally deciding to cooperate and just split the money. Along the way, Johnny meets and falls for Puja, while Jimmy strikes up a relationship with Puja’s friend Kim (Kim Sharma), whose only purpose for being in the movie is to ensure that both of the male leads have a love interest.
After some well-timed eavesdropping, Johnny and Jimmy discover Balram’s embezzling. He promises to pay them off, but tells them that the money isn’t in India at all, it’s in Mauritius, so the film changes location.
Balram doesn’t like being blackmailed, so he does what he always does in such situations - he calls up his goons and orders them to kill Johnny and Jimmy. They’re tired of being ordered around, so they kill Balram instead, leaving the body for Johnny and Jimmy to stumble across. Our heroes are naturally concerned about being blamed for the murder, so they are forced to pretend that Balram is still alive, using the ancient art of corpse puppetry. Comedy!!
Fortunately, Nehlle Pe Dellha only spends about forty five minutes on the corpse gags, and that is including the later addition of Zombie Shakti Kapoor. I haven’t seen either of the Bernie’s duology, and I have no idea how they managed to stretch such a thin premise to make two movies.
This is, admittedly, a really stupid movie. Really, really stupid. Everyone involved seems to have accepted, and even embraced, that fact. I know that between this and my public appreciation of Johny Lever I’m about to lose whatever reputation I may have had as a serious film connoisseur, but I kind of liked Nehlle Pe Dellha; stupid, yes, but the songs are catchy, the leads are engaging, the jokes occasionally made me laugh, and in the end Sanjay solves all their problems by punching people. I can’t ask for anything more.
Balram (Shakti Kapoor), a hotel manager and our corpse to be, has a problem. The hotel is failing, so his niece Puja (Bipasha Basu), the hotel’s owner, plans to sell off the family’s other properties and open a restaurant in Mauritius. (I’m not sure how this will save the hotel, but that’s her plan.) She doesn’t know that Balram is the reason the hotel is failing; he’s been embezzling for years, and the other family properties Puja is depending on no longer exist. After Puja is hustled out of the office, the hotel’s accountant blackmails Balram, who gives him a quick down payment and then summons his three pet goons (Mukesh Rishi, Aasif Shaikh, and Shiva) to deal with the problem.
The accountant is killed, and conveniently dies in front of petty criminals Johnny (Sanjay Dutt) and Jimmy (Saif Ali Khan), living just long enough to reveal that there are 30 crore hidden in the hotel. (That’s three hundred million rupees, which works out to a little more than seven million dollars.) Johnny and Jimmy have never gotten along; Johnny is a con artist, and has always looked down on Jimmy’s burglary as cowardly, while Jimmy maintains that they are working the same job, just different shifts. The two sensibly agree that this situation is too dangerous for them, and they go their separate ways.
The next day, Johnny and Jimmy separately con their way onto the hotel wait staff, and start looking for the money. (While the film takes great pains to establish that Jimmy is a burglar, after his introduction he never burgles again, and functions strictly as another con artist.) The pair spend some time trying to outmaneuver one another, before finally deciding to cooperate and just split the money. Along the way, Johnny meets and falls for Puja, while Jimmy strikes up a relationship with Puja’s friend Kim (Kim Sharma), whose only purpose for being in the movie is to ensure that both of the male leads have a love interest.
After some well-timed eavesdropping, Johnny and Jimmy discover Balram’s embezzling. He promises to pay them off, but tells them that the money isn’t in India at all, it’s in Mauritius, so the film changes location.
Balram doesn’t like being blackmailed, so he does what he always does in such situations - he calls up his goons and orders them to kill Johnny and Jimmy. They’re tired of being ordered around, so they kill Balram instead, leaving the body for Johnny and Jimmy to stumble across. Our heroes are naturally concerned about being blamed for the murder, so they are forced to pretend that Balram is still alive, using the ancient art of corpse puppetry. Comedy!!
Fortunately, Nehlle Pe Dellha only spends about forty five minutes on the corpse gags, and that is including the later addition of Zombie Shakti Kapoor. I haven’t seen either of the Bernie’s duology, and I have no idea how they managed to stretch such a thin premise to make two movies.
This is, admittedly, a really stupid movie. Really, really stupid. Everyone involved seems to have accepted, and even embraced, that fact. I know that between this and my public appreciation of Johny Lever I’m about to lose whatever reputation I may have had as a serious film connoisseur, but I kind of liked Nehlle Pe Dellha; stupid, yes, but the songs are catchy, the leads are engaging, the jokes occasionally made me laugh, and in the end Sanjay solves all their problems by punching people. I can’t ask for anything more.
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