Chennai Express – Hindi movie /Tamil movie review

I saw Chennai Express when it opened in August 2013.  It is now available for rental in most places. It’s a very funny movie and the audience howled with laughter throughout. The thing is, to understand half of the jokes, you have to have seen Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge . To understand the other half of the jokes, you have to understand both Hindi and Tamil – because there are a lot of jokes about language confusion. Fortunately, I was sitting next to an Indian who helped me understand the jokes I missed.

But if you speak neither Hindi nor Tamil, this movie is still highly enjoyable. Just, make sure to see Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge first because this movie is essentially a remake of that movie. My bollywood friends didn’t see it that way, but it basically has the same plot sooooooo, I'm not sure why they didn't make the connection. Especially given that the introduction of our two lovers is exactly the same and uses the same exact music for comic effect, and for really really obvious foreshadowing, and again, did I mention that  the plot is basically the same.

What is the plot? 

Boy and girl meet on a train and they fall in love. Unfortunately, the girl is engaged to a bad ass guy who is completely wrong for her. Boy has to go to the middle of nowhere rural India and fight the bad ass guy to win the girl.  Or, at least that was the plot of Dilwale. Filmed in 1995 by Aditya Chopra. Shahrukh was still young then, only 30 years old. He was still capable of playing a teenager in love.

SRK is now 48 and he needs to stop playing teenagers. The problem is he’s not a very good dramatic actor. What he does well is puppy love and comedy and it’s kind of unseemly for a middle aged guy to be in puppy love. Which is where Chennai Express comes in.

In Chennai Express, SRK basically gets to redo Dilwaye Dulhania but as a 40 year old who has never had a girlfriend and has never been married (because he grandparents never approved), which means he can play someone near his age and yet still get to fall in love on screen – which is what all us SRK fans want to see.

This remake is silly, but it works precisely because it can be a love story standing on it’s own and a remake of a classic and an homage to SRK’s career and a send up of his entire comedic career, with elements of a Rajnikanth movie (Tamil language star) all at the same time . Which is why we were all laughing so hard throughout this movie.

This movie is directed by Rohit Shetty, who I’m not a huge fan of. He’s an action director, but his movies tend to lack humanism, so while I am entertained, I’m also a little annoyed by the morality of it all. I liked this one because Rohit was constrained by SRK romance rules, which require a strict adherence to certain moral codes, which is why our hero has to fight for the girl at the end.. The other thing Rohit in did well in this movie was constrain SRK’s tendency to overact. I realized that part of the problem is that other directors linger on his close ups and if you cut away sooner, it’s not as cringe worthy. So good job Rohit.

At the beginning, SRK’s character’s grandpa dies leaving him free to finally go to Goa with his guy friends to meet some ladies. Unfortunately, his grandma wants him to spread his ashes south in the waters between Tamil and Sri Lanka – the complete opposite side of the country. SRK decides to head south to appease his grandma and then get off at the first exit and then head north to meet his pals in Goa. As he is getting off the train, a girl is running – to the music from Dilwale Dulhania and he helps her get on, just as in the original. Then as he is getting off, a fat guy is running, to the same music. Happens 3 more times. It just gets funnier and funner. By the time he gets everyone on, he can’t get off and he is stuck. And, it turns out that the girl was running away from the big thugs and he is now stuck as is she. And the setting for the reluctant romance is begun.

There are several really funny devices that keep our reluctant couple together long enough for them to fall in love, like they have to pretend to get engaged so that he isn't killed by her criminal boss of a father. He is hidden to wait for a morning train out, but it turns out he was hidden on a boat run by smugglers that is caught and he is brought back to the town where people want to kill him for being engaged to a girl engaged to someone else. You get the idea.

What I liked.

Our heroine is kick ass. At no point is she helpless.  SRK is really in his element and quite funny in this movie.  The songs are fun, but not memorable, so, the music didn’t really stick with me in the same way that the music in Dilwale does. Mostly what I remember music wise is the reuse of famous songs from other SRK movies. The final fight is well done, even though the product placement elements of it are over the top funny. Like at one point SRK is completely covered in blood, except for the label on his undershirt, which is clean and cleverly placed for us to see it. And for some reason during the fight scene, you hear the sound of the TARDIS. I was half expecting The Doctor to show up. Alas, he didn't, but SRK prevails and gets the girl and everyone is happy, including her ex fiance who never wanted to stand between her and true love anyway.

Conclusion:

This is a very funny movie. But to enjoy it fully and to understand what the film makers were doing, you really do need to see Dilwale Dulhania first.

Scene from the movie:

I could not find a version of this with subtitles. Basically, they are communicating via song. They are famous songs from other SRK movies that everyone knows, but they are changing the lyrics so that they girl can explain the situation she is in to SRK without the Tamil speaking thugs knowing what they are saying.  The Tamil thugs go into Chitta Chitta - which is also famous, but from a Akshay Kumar movie.

The juxtaposition of famous love songs with lyrics switched out for dialogue like - meet me in the bathroom and bring your phone is really really really funny.