Where's the Party Yaar?

While I agree that much of this film rehashes a lot of old stereotypes and clichés, I didn't feel that the film did so mean-spiritedly or even without good intentions. Wasn't the moral of the story that all the stereotypes and harsh feelings toward recent immigrants were wrong? While there were points where some of the jokes or plot lines were a little hokey or clichéd and completely overdone (for the love of god, no more doctor/engineer jokes!), I thought the film had some moments of very subtle, very astute analysis on identity, race relations and negotiations of who is "cool" and who isn't. Granted, I'm watching this film for my master's thesis, so I'm looking for all of those subtle cues, but if you look closely, you can see there is a lot more going on in this film than FOB jokes.

That being said, the film isn't perfect. It gets really slow at points, and like I said, a lot of the jokes are completely run into the ground. However, I thought that Hari was such a sweet, likable character (he actually reminded me a lot of the main character in the movie "LOSER," which follows a pretty similar story line about a dorky mid-Westerner moving to New York for college), that he made the movie worth watching. Despite all this film's shortcomings, I'd rather watch it than American Desi (or a large number of the American Desi type films) any day. This is one of the few films of its type that didn't take a completely uncritical approach to "Indian" culture. This movie actually took some time to poke fun at itself.

In my opinion, this film got much closer to satire than pretty much everything else I've seen in its genre, and if you are looking for a film to watch within this genre, this is probably the best option at this point.

A very funny movie. All politics aside, fob, abcd, Indian Ameican, these are obviously hot bed issues that stike a chord in each viewer making it impossible for them to watch the movie in its on immensely well crafted, fun, colorful, and musical environment. Practically ten minutes of this film is a man splashing around in a tub, not being Indian, or American but simply being a grown hairy man getting as much fun out of a tub full of water and not taking sides in the epic battle between the new and old groups of Indians ( it would seem from reading some of the pathetic reviews in this collection of reviews the the battle is epic) It seems that this was a topic the filmmakers probably did not think would be so emotional.

But once again so much of this movie doesn't really even play into that debate and really just attempts to create some fun and silly moments, like Kal's dance for Janvi. When its does take a stand and get on its soapbox it does it in such a clever way that the Shalllow Indians, who feel the film pokes fun at them, watch the movie don't even notice the scene where PRYIA in JANVI's documentary, reveal the filmmakers true feelings about the whole "Can Indians get along debate." In this scene it seems like PRYIA really does have a mind and she realizes that the struggle Indians have now is nothing compared to the Civil Rights Struggle in the US only 40 some years ago --she admits, and the filmmakers through her, that the battle for who is the coolest is not important when one thinks of the struggles of minorities in this country in the past and all the people who have cleared the way for "PRYIA" to worry about how she may be seen as a freak for the color of her eye-shadow and not the color of her skin. It also shows that some of the worst hatred in minority groups exist within the group itself as those who adapt and adopt the culture of the new environment immediately pick on members of their own group who do not fit in. But these are heavy issues and to attempt them in a comedy is bold and i think the filmmakers succeed in showing how this happens and DO NOT TAKE THE SIDE of the person who picks on members of his/her own group, --that is why the club owner is, in the end, exposed as THE BAD GUY. In fact --he is really the only bad guy in the movie. the guy who owns the club and throws the parties but does not want any "real" Indians to show up is the one everyone can agree is the "loser." But when it is not smartly dealing with these heavy topics , the film is a very silly and funny movie that cracked me up.

This is a movie about an Asian Indian family living in the United States. Mo Bakshi (Kal Penn) was raised in the U.S., is familiar with the way of life and is considered one of the cool kids. Harishkumar Patel (Sunil Malhotra), or Hari for short, is what the americanized Indians referred to as "FOBs" or Fresh Off the Boat.

Hari comes to the U.S. in order to go to college. Before he goes, he is foretold by his family in India that his true love will fall on him like lightning from the sky, that her name began with the letter "P" and would fall in love with him on the night of a full moon. On his first day in class he meets Priya (Tina Cherian). Actually, she trips onto him and he interprets this as falling from the sky and chases her for the remainder of the movie.

Throughout the movie, the FOBs are trying to get into the cool parties while guys like Mo and his buddies do their best to keep them out. I suppose this movie is trying to point out the differences between them and even goes as far as to say they are racist against their own heritage. It is a little hard to explain but I understood the movie completely.

This was titled "Dude, Where's The Party?" at the video store and billed as a comedy. After just coming off of watching Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, I figured this was a "can't miss" movie. While it was not too terrible, it was nowhere near as funny as Harold & Kumar (with the exception of maybe one scene). I kind of got the picture they were trying to capitalize on Kal's Harold & Kumar fame by releasing this movie afterward, even though it was made before and the box cover could be misconstrued as well.

Also, some of the actors are in need of acting classes or something. Most of the smaller parts I guess. I did not think the women were all that beautiful either, with the exception of Mousami Dave, who plays Poonam Mehta. Mousami was by far the hottest girl in the movie. With all things considered, I rate this in the middle and would honestly recommend to pass on this film. 5/10

The movie (seems more like a documentary, though long) is good, a good once a worth watch time pass but clearly does not depict Indians. There might be some special cases but not all bag are douche bag. Never mind, a good to see comic case of a special middle class Indian moving to Western world and watch it out for fun.

All the comments by other users above this one are true and genuine. the funny situation lies with the acting - the cousin sings outside his gf's house 'hum dil de chuke sanam' and the one when the friends act like a gujrati and punjabi. And the punjabi daddy is awesome.

The two girls were just OK but the guys rocked with acting skills.

Well i got this movie in a big outside sale of a video club, cost 3$ so why not? After all it got Kal Penn, and yes its my own fault for buying something because i recognize the main star from a movie i like. Kal Penn mostly famous for the Harold & Kumar franchise play here one of the main character in this pre-Harold & Kumar movie. Kinda weird is that the other main character is name Hari Kumar Patel or something like that, which is the name of Kal Penn's character in Harold & Kumar. Anyway, this movie is rated G in Quebec which mean General Public, and therefore it was expected that there would not be raunchy stuff even tough Kal Penn hold panties on the front cover.

Some of the ideas where good, and the movie had a little something that didn't made it "bad" but it definitely need for laughing moments. Its one of those movie where it should be funny, but its not really and the best you can get out of it are a few smiles and maybe a chuckle or two. The main character is socially awkward coming from India and being very traditional and its mostly from him that the smiles come from. Kal Penn do very OK with the material he is offered but there was only one scene that more or less amused me.

This movie like many others enter the "cute comedy" category and i think when i was 10 or 12 i would had a lot of fun watching it, for that period of time, but in today's standard, it felt short.

I will admit the hard accents also made it hard for me to follow everything properly, as English ain't my first language in the first place. And i usually don't mind too much a comic relief side character with accent, having to follow an entire movie like this is kinda difficult. The movie is also full of India's music which where very annoying at time.

I think my biggest grudge against the movie is that with a title like "Dude, Where's the party" (probably cashing in on Dude, Where's my car) i was expecting a wild ride of a night movie, in the vain of "21 and over" only a bit softer. If you prefer take Ferris Bueller's day off as a better example in that rating category.

Anyway like i said, unlike some people if a movie does not amuse me that much but i still finish it and feel like "yah well OK" i will give it a 5 and say its OK, just not as good as i had hope for, but not that bad either. I remember Balls and Chain with the same Kal Penn which was not as good as i had hope for, but a bit better than this if my memory serve me well. In any case, i think outside the Harold and Kumar franchise and Van Wilder movies, there is nothing memorable from Kal Penn in term of comedy. Well Bachelor Party Vegas was nice thinking about it... not awesome but nice.