Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan

Producer: Nilima Mukesh Bhatt
Director : Mahesh Bhatt
*ing: Saif Ali Khan, Twinkle Khanna, Akshay Anand, Girish, Avtar Gill
Music: Jatin Lalit

Released on : Cable/Video

Reviewed by: Anish Khanna
anish@indolink.com

out of 
"Ae dil hain mushkil jeena yahan.....". The title phrase of this famous old song has now been used for a new film (with a Bombay-Mumbai switch courtesy the Shiv Sena) - well, somewhat new. Maybe you can go back through your cassette collection and find the songs to "Mr. Aashiq". You will be surprised to know (or maybe you already do) that "Yeh Hain Mumbai Meri Jaan" is a much-delayed, re-vamped version of "Mr. Aashiq", complete with the songs intended for the former film and with the same cast (minus Ashwini Bhave).

The story is largely lifted from "The Secret of My Success". Saif Ali Khan plays an educated village boy who comes to big, bad Mumbai with the promise of a great accounting job. Things fall through, his car is stolen, he moves in with the car thief (Chunky Pandey), and Saif is forced to become a peon in another company run by Sorabh Shukla, whose evil brother Avtar Gill is out to get his money with the help of his assistant "Pomfritte" (no not the fish but a role played by "YHMMJ" writer Girish). Sorabh suspects some gadbad and hires an NRI private investigator (played by Akshay Anand) to investigate the goings-on. When the NRI investigator is unable to show up on time, Saif assumes his identity (with contacts and a gotee) and runs back and forth between peon and investigator. While playing the investigator, he manages to woo Twinkle, who also works in the same company. He also becomes aware of Pomfritte's and Akash's plot to destroy the company. Things go a little haywire when the real investigator finally shows up.

The film is an out-and-out comedy, and one has to abandon all reason in order to see it. Is it funny? Well, mostly. The absolute show-stealer here is writer Girish, who gives one the most hilarious performances ever as Pomfritte. Although his dialogue might not be as funny as it had the potential to be, Girish manages to turn at least his lines into something quite rib-tickling. Saif has always been adept at comedy, and manages to make for a few funny moments here (a few less than I would expect from the leading male actually...). Chunky Pandey and Akshay Anand are great in their comedic cameos, and Sorabh Shukla and Akash Khurana are also quite, quite funny. Twinkle looks good, which is just about all she needs to do in this role.

Mr. Bhatt is more or less adequate as director here, although I found his "Duplicate" to be a better comedy than this film. Let me reiterate that there is more comedic potential here than what we now see in the final product. Even something like "Daud" is a lot more intelligent and witty than "YHMMJ", because it is apparent that "Daud" was cunningly and painstakingly crafted, while "YHMMJ" is a product with a contrived story (courtesy Soni Bhatt) meant to sell songs that were hits several years ago.

This brings me to another issue. If you listened to the "Mr. Aashiq" songs as much as I did, you can't help but feel that the songs have a stale quality to them on screen. It's akin to somebody taking old hit songs from "Dil", "Saajan", or "Aashiqui" and making a new film for the. Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration, but still - you can't help but feel a strange sense of deja vu.

The three reasons to see the film would be for Girish's performance, the nostalgia of the songs (they are quite good after all..), and the GREAT cameo Tanuja "Dushman" Chandra makes as the Chinese girl in the climax of the film.

I was a little weary of seeing this film since it is one that could not find distributors and has come straight to video/cable. Still - if you compare it to some of the other trash we see now in the name of films, "Yeh Hain Mumbai Meri Jaan" is a much more bearable film.