Looking at its jaded posters, outdated star-cast and a title borrowed from the famous dialogue of a Shahrukh Khan's film (to gain some extra attention), its anybody guess that this would be nothing worth watching or wasting time on. But still I opted for it after many weeks of its initial release because I do love watching movies made on the Film Industry itself and its distinctive people in particular.
However, proving the above statement right, MDPABH did turn out to be one of those lost in the making kind of mediocre films which try to make mockery of film-makers, their questionable working styles and fixed routine patterns in its weak script. Revolving around the experiences of a young director who wishes to make a good film in Mumbai after completing his film-making course from abroad, it can easily be rated as a forcible comedy which fails to make you laugh through any of its gags or the so called funny sequences going over the top.
In order to make a Bhandarkar kind of spoof on the film industry, the director adds a bit of sarcasm too along with the useless deliberate humor in its various scenes. Cracking indicative jokes on Bhatts, Balaji, Karan Johar and many more famous names, the writers try to be realistic which doesn't work at all due to their below average sequences, unimpressive songs and predictable, uninteresting developments in the storyline. Hence, it can also be taken as another cheap version of the recently released HEROINE which even features veteran OM PURI as the industry's manipulative story-writer along with Sunil Shetty, Rajpal Yadav & Rakesh Bedi in the key roles.
But where the film remains a poor, forgettable attempt with a pretty ordinary take on the issue, it does have an important message for the Indian audience regarding the quality of HIT films here and the subject has also been used more than once in the past.
As per the theme of MDPABH, the film being made by the young producer gets new additions and changes every single day which eventually ruins the project completely, turning into a mindless film in the end. But ironically when it gets released, the meaningless venture unexpectedly becomes a big hit all over clearly making fun of the audience tastes and preferences at their face.
So as I feel, MDPABH needs to be taken as a spook on 'We the viewers' too who many a times turn a highly avoidable and below average film into a big hit just due to its star-cast featuring our favorite actor. The trend has been witnessed more strongly in this new millennium and there are many recent examples of such HIT movies which later are looked upon with amazement comparing their mediocre content with the success achieved.
Here many friends would remember that a few decades back there was a TV serial called "Yeh Shaadi Nahin Ho Sakti" wherein Sudhir Pandey played a famous entertaining character called "Mr. Golcha" who deliberately tries to make a FLOP film with the help of his entire silly team. And after many hilarious attempts when they release the film, the project becomes a big hit shockingly, ruining all their plans of losing a big amount of money as their losses. The subject was more recently adapted by another film "Dhoondhte Reh Jaoge" in 2009 which in fact was inspired by the original Oscar winner "The Producers" which actually explored this funny theme way back in 1968 for the first time.
Hence, may be MERE DOST PICTURE ABHI BAAKI HAI should be taken as a reminder of the same sarcasm targeted on 'We the audience' once again who are actually responsible for whatever is being served to them in the name of Hindi Cinema. And till such films made by people like "Mr. Golcha" will keep on becoming big hits, the Industry will go on making them forever
as that's exactly the rule of demand and supply in the market.
