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Starring:
Lara Dutta and Vinay Pathak
Directed by
Shashant Shah
"The road of life twists and turns and no two directions
are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the
journey, not the destination". The beautiful demography
and diversity of our country comes across on the
colourful canvas of the screen. Chalo Dilli is the
journey of mismatched strangers together on a trip which
alters their lives.
Dynamic go-getter Mihika Banerjea (Lara Dutta) thinks
she has her life totally under control. This highly
successful Senior Vice President of Investment Banking
with a top Multinational Bank is a dynamic, no nonsense
lady who is extremely focused on her career. She does
not compromise in life and is used to getting her way.
Here Mihika's life collides with the boisterous and over
enthusiastic Manu Gupta. A portly, gutka eating, expletive spewing, Ladies
Dress Material Seller from Karol Bagh, Old Delhi who too is traveling back to
Delhi from Mumbai.
Manu is everything that Mihika isn't. Loud, light hearted and extremely street
smart. And at times, over smart. Which is what eventually lands them up in
trouble. Big trouble.
Now begins a bizarre journey full of adventure, madness and crazy comic
moments with the oddest traveling couple ever!
A hilarious roller coaster journey through air, road and rail from Mumbai, via
Jaipur to Delhi. A journey where through Manu and Mihika finally gets to see
the real India. Its colourful and quirky people and their oddball
eccentricities.
A rude and sleepy tourist taxi driver, a shy large hearted trucker, the motley
rustic crew at an unhygienic dhaba, a corrupt TC with a conscience, idiotic
desi hoodlums, an excitable hotel owner, gun slinging angry local dons and
lots more...
Cast:
Vinay Pathak - Manu Gupta
Lara Dutta - Mihika Mukherjee
Akshay Kumar – Lt. Col. Vikram Singh Rathore
Dadhi Pandey - Dharampal
Yana Gupta as Laila in an item song
Pankaj Jha - Inspector Mishra
Brijendra Kala - T.C. Pant
Gaurav Gera
Rahul Singh
Teddy Maurya
Mukesh Bhatt
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What helps is her being finicky about things and her
fetish for cleanliness. From Business class travel to
Mineral water from the Alps, she is used to having the
best things in life. And is willing to pay anything for
them, because she seriously believes that nothing good
comes for free.
The film opens in the cold air-conditioned and luxurious
confines of a swank corporate office and then via a
bustling Mumbai city airport, leads to the small colourful
town of Rajasthan which has rustic flavour of village
life.
On her way to Delhi for a 'brief halt' at her home and
husband, before heading off to an international
conference, Mihika misses her flight and much to her
chagrin, ends up traveling on a budget airline which gets
stranded at Jaipur airport due to a technical glitch.
Little does Mihika realize that the best joys in life are
for free. She is stuck up, low on patience and demanding.
A control freak who gets stressed out when things don't go
her way.
What begins as a nightmarish journey for Mihika,
eventually turns out to be an internal journey for her, as
Manu and the characters around her show her life for what
it truly is. And the true measure of success and
happiness.
So finally when Mihika gets home, she has traveled a much
bigger distance than on a roadmap.
In India with every fifteen kilometers, dialects change
and the look of location change which is creatively
captured with the blazing afternoon to the setting sun to
the cold midnight and then the beautiful sunrise. Besides
this, Chalo Dilli showcases all forms of travel like the
swanky cars, rickety tourist car traps, airplanes, trains,
camelcarts, tempos, jeeps, two wheelers and even a
bicycle.
A fine drama with crisp editing and excellent performances
by Vinay Pathak as the intolerable country bumpkin and
Lara Dutta who is just ideal as the snooty banker and very
well restrained in the second half. There is an item song
Laila Main Laila performed by Yana Gupta.
Chalo Dilli is a journey filled with colour, characters
and scenic locations of India.
- Amarjeet
Credits & Crew:
Banner - Big Daddy Productions, Eros International Media
Ltd, Bheegi Basanti Entertainment
Produced by Krishika Lulla, Lara Dutta, Kavita Bhupathi
Chadda
Directed by Shashant Shah
Story & Screenplay by Arshad Sayed
Music by Gourov Dasgupta
Cinematography - Nikos Andritsakis
Editing by Aseem Sinha
Sound - Shajith Koyeri
Dialogues - Arshad Syed
Costume - Manoshi Nath, Rushi Sharma
Lyricist – Manthan, Anand Raj Anand, Krishika Lulla,
Shabbir Ahmed, Nisha Mascarenhas
Background Music - Rohit Kulkarni |
