The President Is Coming

I just stumbled upon this movie in a video parlor. Frankly speaking I never had any expectations on this low budged movie. I was quite a pleasantly surprised by the story line.

The movie is quirky, politically sarcastic and immensely hilarious. It has an interesting premise of the famously publicized visit of George Bush visiting India back in 2006. The American Embassy hires a PR Agency to shortlist 6 unique Indians and choose 1 India to "shake" hands with Bush. The choice would be make by going through few competitive rounds.

The movie shows these 6 candidate's personal funny moments, opinions and reactions and funny apprehensions in the competitive rounds. The film successfully depicts Indian crazy euphoria of their American Dreams regardless of how stupid they may be. Each of the candidates are desperate to win. The film successfully brings the best of the sarcasm in the entire socio-political circus.

I specifically liked acting of Anand Tiwari( the freaky financial broker),Konkona Sen Sharma(arrogant Bengali writer) and Shernaz Patel ( PR Co-ordinator).

Overall the film is a great home video entertainer with popcorn. Trust me, you wont regret it!

The story idea was decent. But the movie was bad, very disappointing. I felt the director didn't do a good job because the screenplay was lacking. There were a couple of good scenes that made me laugh. But most of the jokes were contrived.

You can't get away from criticism by calling it a documentary (i.e. low budget). It needs to be compared to a commercial movie. My test is simple - Was it an entertaining movie? After sitting through the whole movie - the answer is No. I felt cheated because the movie could have been better than the final product that was presented.

Konkona Sen Sharma was a waste. I decided to watch the movie as I saw her name in the titles.

I saw President at its NYC opening at SAIFF. I found it both pleasantly entertaining and original. As a non-Indian I may have missed some of the specific Indian humor contained in a few scenes but all in all I found myself laughing pretty consistently throughout the film. If you're looking for a film with great characters, witty dialogue, and a slick editing I highly recommend it. The other thing that stood out to me was the caliber of acting and the great on screen chemistry between the characters. At its core the film pokes fun at both India and the U.S. and the strange relationship that exists between these two great countries.

When we were kids, we played a popular game called 'Simon says'. In this game, one kid from the group became 'Simon' and issued instructions to the rest of the group, like 'Simon says sit' or 'Simon says jump'. The person who failed to perform the action immediately lost the game and sat out until the winner was declared. The six contestants who compete in a reality show that offers the winner a chance of the lifetime to shake hands with President George Bush (now former President, of course) are so hare-brained and crotchety they'd all fail in first round of a Simon Says game, forget making the list of NDTV's top entrepreneurs (as the film states. The only way this can be justifiable is if NDTV is equally harebrained) or worse, representing India to greet a President. It isn't just the contestant choice that's ridiculous but the selection committee itself which includes two unhinged women who conduct a series of absurd tasks in elimination rounds. It's really a stretch to believe that the US consulate would these circus freaks to work for them, who seem fitter as inmates of a mental asylum. The only reality shows that fits the bill for these cartoons is the garish 'Timeout with Imam', the Indian 'reality show' (though it's obviously scripted) that's currently polluting MTV India. For those unfamiliar with the show, think Spencer Pratt & Heidi Montag.

Actor-director Kunaal Roy Kapoor's satirical mockumentary is too incredulous to work as a satire or mockumentary, and edges on farce with non-stop tomfoolery. The characters in 'The President is Coming' are so in-your-face obnoxious and in-each-other's faces offensive that they put you off so much, you'd wish that carnivorous plant from Cadbury Bournville commercial would devour them up. These aren't likable caricatures, like Sheldon Cooper in Big Bang Theory or Meryl Streep's wonderful Camilla Bowner in 'Web Therapy', whose verbal darts during their repartees are sharp but don't hurt. In 'The President is Coming', the characters want to draw blood every time they open their mouths. At one point, a guy asks a girl 'Are you a sl*t?... A wh*re?' (later, it is found that the girl had recorded a sex-tape with another male contestant in the past) like he's asking about weather. Even the wicked Barney Stinson from comedy series How I Met Your Mother would've been more tactful.

There are seven contenders fighting for the title of 'The Most offensive character' in the film. Let's begin with the host Samantha Patel, a bossy uptight always-Miss-Right anchor who dons Barkha Dutt's bob cut. There's hardly a moment where we don't see her putting down her timid protégé Ritu Johnson and telling her who has the last word. She's later found to be a kleptomaniac stealing cutlery and statues from the location of the reality show. It's surprising that this character, who wants to remain in the spotlight always, doesn't ask the reality-show's camera-man (who's off-screen, holding the camera, through which we view all the action) for close-ups, or come too close to the camera only to block others from view.

The six contestants include Maya Roy, an author who loves the works of Ernest Hemingway, except she thinks she's better. A strong-minded forward-thinking divorcée, she is irked by the misogynistic, homophobic, antediluvian thinking of co-contestant Ajay Karlekar, a Hindutva social worker who believes he and George Bush share the same qualities (he's got that right, at least). She is also very shrewd, using contestants' weaknesses to get them eliminated. One victim is South Indian Ramesh S., a closeted homosexual who is learns all the rules of straight-flirtation but never gets them right. Then there is billionaire's daughter and budding entrepreneur Archana, a scatterbrained brown skin Paris Hilton without the puppies, and Rohit Seth, an accent trainer running the unimaginatively named 'Speak easy'; this is the couple that was involved in the sex tape scandal. The guy who asks her whether she's a sl*t is Kapil Dev Dholakia, a stockbroker who can speak stocks and shares very easily but nothing else. When asked what the capital of US is, he replies 'Dow Jones'. The film gives this painful guy a sweet revenge by dressing him up as Madonna in the Round 'American Masquerade'.

You just can't choose some who calls Osama Bin Laden as Sri Sri Ravi Shankar as one of the top six contestants of any quiz based reality show, especially one where the winner meets Mr. Bush. One just can't be so ignorant, so offensive and so ludicrous unless paid handsomely by the TV to act this way. There's also some obvious blunders for which no explanations are provided. Firstly, where's the entire crew that's shooting the event? Are we to believe one that there's only person shooting AND operating the boom mic (a device to capture sound. Oftentimes makes special appearance in films due to careless editing) and there's no security except one mousy watchman? And why would one character reveal a maleficent hidden agenda in front of TV cams and security cams? All these annoyances and blunders rob the spotlight from moments of mild delight.

Ernest Hemingway once said 'The most essential gift for a good writer is a built-in, shock-proof sh*t detector. This is the writer's radar and all great writers have had it'. Anuvab Pal may not even make it to the long list of such writers. His film reeks.

Michael Moore - Fahrenheit 9/11. What did he do? Collected pieces of facts, joined them nicely with his hypotheses to prove his point against George Bush in a documentary style format. Treading the similar path is Kunal Roy Kapur who takes Presidents visit to India and weaves a nice fictionalised story on the process of "hard man is good to find" for shaking hands with him.

¤ Vivek Gomber & Ira Dubey as "American Desi" Rohit and "I am like confused" Archana:: What good is a Bollywood story without a love-story? The bitter-sweet couple has a touch of love, sacrifice and lived- happily-ever-after.

¤ Namit Das as the "I want to have the cake and eat it too" Ramesh:: Looks wise very authentic. Until now I thought the actor was actually a South-Indian.

¤ Anand Tiwari as "Gujju trader" Kapil Dev:: Again splendid. Note the finer nuance when he racks his brains to demonstrate his knowledge the scrip codes of stock market. And his mentality of using money-power to buy the completion is well enacted.

¤ Konkana Sen as "crafty" Maya:: Falls short in terms of expectations perhaps because the other characters come about much stronger than her. Her attempts to ward off competition was not quite impressive and sheep in the wolves clothing was no surprise either.

¤ Imran Rasheed as "Security" Aslam:: Very short role. Pay attention how genuinely he does Salaam.

¤ Satchit Puranik as "the educated fundamentalist" Ajay Karlekar: His mannerism, costume and look gives a very authentic feel.

¤ Aakash Khurana as "Help, I am a celebrity - get me out of here": Was wasted. I think he was dropped or opted out during production.

¤ Shernaz Patel as "The Devil Wears Prada" Sam:: Was loud and hammed. Should have watched Meryl Streep for homework.

¤ Shivani as "underdog" Ritu:: Miscast and perhaps didn't utilise the potential the character had to offer.

The characters are very much true-to-life as each one of them is distinct leaving a lasting impression on the viewers mind. The actors deserve special mention for they literally get into the skin of the character with the mannerism and accent. Wonder if they are very much same in real life.

The last 15-minutes deserved better writing for it was kind of coming especially the part when the penny is dropped.

Anyways, brave attempt.