Gali Gali Chor Hai - Critic's Reviews
Director : Rumi Jaffery
Starring : Akshaye Khanna, Shriya Saran, Mugdha Godse, Annu Kapoor, Satish Kaushik
Gali Gali Chor Hai amuses intermittently. Fortunately, the movie goes public at a juncture when anti-corruption appears to be the essence of the season. But the film could've done with a far more hard-hitting conclusion!
Fade in. Film starts. Camera zooms in on a mysteriously undivided Madhya Pradesh on the Indian map. Either the movie’s set before 2000, or the filmmakers don’t know better. Singer Kailash Kher cranks up the volume with a noisy song that suitably goes, “Corruption, corruption, corruption ka shor hai,” referring to how those who should’ve stayed back in Chambal live in Delhi now. The person you probably think of is bandit queen Phoolan Devi – once a member of parliament, now no more.
'Gali Gali Chor Hai' doesn't say much that hasn't been said before, and it doesn't say it interestingly either. Never smart enough to be described as a satire, it fails ultimately because it's dreadfully dull. Even a sleazy item song by Pakistani starlet Veena Malik is unlikely to shake you out of your slumber.
The common man's rage, which you expect to dazzle you (or rescue you from the repeated adventures of Bharat babu) doesn't happen right until the end of the film, by when, you want to clap simply out of the delight that the film is over. Gali Gali Chor Hai may hope to ride the Anna Hazare tide but it does nothing to put a point across and it certainly fails to entertain.
The dialogues are often sarcastic (extracting a confession in the stolen fan case, the constable tells Bharat and his father, "Chor pe hamein poora bharosa hai ki woh jhooth nahin bolega"), suggesting that Jafry intends this film to be a caustic satire on the lines of the sitcom Office Office. Akshaye and the other characters play it straight and make a sincere effort. And though comedy should ideally be born out of their pitiable situations, it is born out of their inability to find such situations.
But soon the movie loses its comic timing. Bharat's playing Hanuman in the local Ramleela becomes a diversion from the main plot. So does the character played by Mugdha Godse. In the end, Gali Gali Chor Hai doesn't live up to its promise. Just like the anti-corruption movement at the moment.