Cheenicum

Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Tabu, Paresh Rawal, Zohra Sehgal, Swini KharaDirector: R. BalakrishnanMusic: IllaiyarR. Balakrishnan makes his directorial debut with Cheeni Kum. The film is based in London and thereby, the humour will tickle the class audience and not the masses. Certainly, this cannot be adjudged as the flip side of the film. Broadly, the humour is on a more sarcastic side and may not go well with the global audience.
Buddhadev Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) is a 64 year old chef and owner of London's top Indian restaurant. He lives with his 85 year old mother and his only best friend being his 9 year old neighbour. Mr Gupta is an arrogant, egoistic, pompous man with a singular passion in life - cooking. He has been a bachelor all these years and has never been in love until Nina Verma (Tabu), a 34 years old, walks into his restaurant and into his life. Nina is a beautiful and a charming woman. Cool, calm, and always smiling, she is independent and strong willed by nature.
Both of them eventually fall in love and decide to get married!! Now, the situation comes where Mr. Gupta goes to Nina's father, Om Prakash Verma (Paresh Rawal), to ask her hand for marriage. The problem here for Nina’s father is that his son-in-law is 6 years elder to him.
Director Balakrishna successfully qualifies as a fine story teller and handles some of the sequences really well. The screenplay could have been better. The editing department lost out on a lot of scenes which drag, to say the least. Music director Illayairaja does well to compose tracks which gel with the theme of the movie. P.C. Sreeram's cinematography is splendid. Ilaiyaraaja's musical score is soothing.
Tabu is a great actress, and with a role that calls for far less bravura than her leading man, she is comfortably understated. Amitabh Bachchan proves his supremacy yet again. Playing an arrogant chef, the actor is natural all through, but his performance in the finale makes the character all the more believable. Paresh Rawal is only adding to his credibility with every film. Zohra Sehgal is adorable. Swini Khara is supremely confident.
R. Balakrishnan does well to handle the complex story but some parts of it still lack the awesome touch witnessed before in films like Murder and Gangster. The concept of introducing Illaiyaraja and his band in every song of the film does not add to the flavour of the film.
The crackling first half coasts along wonderfully, relying almost solely on Bachchan's formidable charm. The second half sees trouble with a hammy third act.ajaProducer: Sunil Manchanda