It’s laudable when someone tries to make a light-hearted entertainer basing on the animosity that Hindustan and Pakistan have towards each other. Last year, we had had this cross-border comedy War Yaar Chodd Na yaar which explores the lighter side of the hatred. Total Siyapaa also attempts a comedy basing on the popular friction between the nations, showing that at the end of the day we are descendants of apes and humor has no border.
Set in London, this is the story of the chaos that happens in a span of one day. Aman (Ali Zafar) is a Pakistani and a musician in London. His love, Asha (Yami Gautam) insists him to come home and meet her family. Asha belongs to a loud Punjabi family, who are a bunch of cartoons. Asha’s mother (Kirron Kher) knows that he is a Muslim, bit doesn’t mind. However, when she learns that he is a Pakistani, she gets furious. Asha’s brother Manav is a born Pakistani hater, who never stops picking up fights with the Pakistani neighbors in the apartment. Similarly, other family members are also eccentric in their own ways. Amidst all the mess and antipathy, Aman drops a can a frozen soup on a stranger’s head on the road. The siyappas then get stacked one upon the other creating crazy situations in the rest of the movie.
The movie is more of a sitcom filled with comedy of errors. However, if it is not extra-ordinary you cannot stand a sitcom after half-an-hour. The film begins well with good humor and then slightly becomes a passable humor and transforms into a mediocre humor later. The best part, however is the movie wraps up in 90 minutes.
Kirron Kher has a terrific screen presence and comic timing that gives the life to the movie in the first half. Ali Zafar offers nothing new. He has stereotyped himself by doing very similar roles in all his films. Also, he confines all his expressions to the up-and-down movements of his eye-brows. The music he composed in fact contributed more to the movie than his monotonous performance. Yami was decent and made a great pair with the handsome Zafar. The ensemble cast was excellent though with super comic timing.
The major drawback is the writing by Neeraj Pandey which fails to sustain the interest after the initial promising 30 minutes.
In short, an opportunity wasted. However, you can give it a try when it premieres on TV.
