According to Chekhov’s famous maxim, “If in Act I you have a pistol
hanging on the wall, then it must fire in the last act.” In other
words, if you’re not planning on following up on a plot element, you
shouldn’t introduce it in the first place. Bollywood movies, with their
famously sprawling plot lines, often have a spare gun or two lying
around, and that’s understandable. Home Delivery: Aapko . . . Ghar Tak (2005), on the other hand, manages to lose track of an entire arsenal.
It’s two days before Diwali, and advice columnist Sunny Chopra (Vivek Oberoi) should be happy. He has a good job which affords him a comfortable living and a modest degree of fame. He’s been hand-picked by Karan Johar (Karan Johar) to write the script for his next film. His younger sister Anju (Rushita Pandya) absolutely adores him, and his Christian fiance Jenny (Ayesha Takia), affectionately nicknamed “Nani”, is planning a big Diwali celebration in order to make his family feel welcome. Sunny even has his very own Krameresque wacky neighbor, Pandey (Saurabh Shukla.)
Sunny isn’t happy, though, and that’s largely his own fault. He’s self-consciously cynical, and can’t resist sneering at anyone who doesn’t share his gloomy outlook on life; unfortunately, that includes the deeply religious Nani. While he loves Nani, he’s freaked out by the idea of committing to one woman for the rest of his life, and rather than discussing his feelings like an adult, he complains bitterly every time she tries to do something nice for him. When he has the chance to meet sexy South Indian actress Maya (Mahima Chaudry), he charms her with a combination of fanboy trivia and an as yet unfinished Karan Johar script, and soon finds himself with a date, a date which conflicts with Nani’s scheduled Diwali party.
Sunny’s love life isn’t the only thing currently off track. He hasn’t made much progress on the script he’s supposed to be writing, and he hasn’t been into work for two weeks. He deals with these problems by lying to Karan and by dodging the angry phone calls from his boss (Juhi Chawla.) Sunny is, in short, a self-obsessed adolescent, the kind of person who would use his celebrity to cheat a pizza delivery boy out of seven bucks. He’s in desperate need of someone to show him the true meaning of Diwali.
The Spirits of Diwali Past, Present, and Yet to Come are not available, so instead Sunny gets Michael (Boman Irani), a sweet-natured, slightly befuddled older man who has just landed a job as a delivery person for Mummy’s Pizza. Michael makes his first delivery to Sunny’s apartment, and Sunny’s usual lines don’t work, he tries anything and everything short of paying the money he owes to get Michael to go away - until, that is, he discovers that Michael knows how to make halwa, Maya’s favorite treat. Since the employee’s handbook for Mummy’s Pizza says that customers are friends and should be helped whenever possible, Michael cheerfully goes to work in the kitchen, and Sunny quickly learns that when your life has become an elaborate tissue of lies, the last thing you want to do is invite a free spirited innocent into it.
Home Delivery is what they call in Hinglish a “time pass.” The central story of a curmudgeon’s holiday redemption is old but reliable, and Sunny is just sympathetic enough that you want him to be redeemed (although I would have been happy with a little more comeuppance.) The film has an engaging, whimsical visual style, and is frequently very funny; I was especially amused by the brief retrospective of Maya’s film career. It’s also fun trying to spot the numerous celebrity cameos.
On the other hand, there are all those guns on the mantel. This is a sloppy movie. Most seriously, it is clearly established at the beginning of the movie that young Anju has a Santa Claus fixation, and that she is expecting Santa to show up on Diwali and make all her dreams come true. Michael, Sunny’s redemptive agent, the man who indirectly does make all her dreams come true, is a heavyset older man with a long white beard and a red shirt and hat. The film does nothing with this, instead wasting time with an occasionally amusing subplot about a serial killer (Arif Zakaria) who never actually interacts with any of the main characters.
Home Delivery was an okay movie, but with a little more focus and discipline it could have been a great one.
It’s two days before Diwali, and advice columnist Sunny Chopra (Vivek Oberoi) should be happy. He has a good job which affords him a comfortable living and a modest degree of fame. He’s been hand-picked by Karan Johar (Karan Johar) to write the script for his next film. His younger sister Anju (Rushita Pandya) absolutely adores him, and his Christian fiance Jenny (Ayesha Takia), affectionately nicknamed “Nani”, is planning a big Diwali celebration in order to make his family feel welcome. Sunny even has his very own Krameresque wacky neighbor, Pandey (Saurabh Shukla.)
Sunny isn’t happy, though, and that’s largely his own fault. He’s self-consciously cynical, and can’t resist sneering at anyone who doesn’t share his gloomy outlook on life; unfortunately, that includes the deeply religious Nani. While he loves Nani, he’s freaked out by the idea of committing to one woman for the rest of his life, and rather than discussing his feelings like an adult, he complains bitterly every time she tries to do something nice for him. When he has the chance to meet sexy South Indian actress Maya (Mahima Chaudry), he charms her with a combination of fanboy trivia and an as yet unfinished Karan Johar script, and soon finds himself with a date, a date which conflicts with Nani’s scheduled Diwali party.
Sunny’s love life isn’t the only thing currently off track. He hasn’t made much progress on the script he’s supposed to be writing, and he hasn’t been into work for two weeks. He deals with these problems by lying to Karan and by dodging the angry phone calls from his boss (Juhi Chawla.) Sunny is, in short, a self-obsessed adolescent, the kind of person who would use his celebrity to cheat a pizza delivery boy out of seven bucks. He’s in desperate need of someone to show him the true meaning of Diwali.
The Spirits of Diwali Past, Present, and Yet to Come are not available, so instead Sunny gets Michael (Boman Irani), a sweet-natured, slightly befuddled older man who has just landed a job as a delivery person for Mummy’s Pizza. Michael makes his first delivery to Sunny’s apartment, and Sunny’s usual lines don’t work, he tries anything and everything short of paying the money he owes to get Michael to go away - until, that is, he discovers that Michael knows how to make halwa, Maya’s favorite treat. Since the employee’s handbook for Mummy’s Pizza says that customers are friends and should be helped whenever possible, Michael cheerfully goes to work in the kitchen, and Sunny quickly learns that when your life has become an elaborate tissue of lies, the last thing you want to do is invite a free spirited innocent into it.
Home Delivery is what they call in Hinglish a “time pass.” The central story of a curmudgeon’s holiday redemption is old but reliable, and Sunny is just sympathetic enough that you want him to be redeemed (although I would have been happy with a little more comeuppance.) The film has an engaging, whimsical visual style, and is frequently very funny; I was especially amused by the brief retrospective of Maya’s film career. It’s also fun trying to spot the numerous celebrity cameos.
On the other hand, there are all those guns on the mantel. This is a sloppy movie. Most seriously, it is clearly established at the beginning of the movie that young Anju has a Santa Claus fixation, and that she is expecting Santa to show up on Diwali and make all her dreams come true. Michael, Sunny’s redemptive agent, the man who indirectly does make all her dreams come true, is a heavyset older man with a long white beard and a red shirt and hat. The film does nothing with this, instead wasting time with an occasionally amusing subplot about a serial killer (Arif Zakaria) who never actually interacts with any of the main characters.
Home Delivery was an okay movie, but with a little more focus and discipline it could have been a great one.
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