Deewana Mastana - Ohh How I Loved the Nineties

Is that the sound of sheer comedic greatness or my heart breaking?

Well I am one of the nonsense people that had to use that Casablanca line to equate it to this gem of a film! I had complained on Twitter that I couldn't find this anywhere in my house, I searched my dvds everywhere only till yesterday did I realize like an 'ulu ka pattha' that it was on the shelf the whole time right at the back! DUHHHH! But better late than never, so here is my belated Chichi post!

Dedication to Masala King, Manmohan Desai!

I first saw Deewana Mastana, when it first came out in 1997, I was a wee 7 year old then but as with me I remember silly bits of films rather than my own homework and exam questions. But ohh well thats another "Wake Up Rum" post, but this film was definitely gathering dust in my head till I found it at the cheapo shop with a nice auntydvdwallah, offering amazing deals for addicts like me! But back to Deewana Mastana, which is one of my favorite comedies EVER!

This movie is excellent solely for this man and his sunglasses collection!

Deewana Mastana was a wonderful experience for simply being a blast from the past romp through the 90's conventions of a David Dhawan comedy. I have never laughed so hard, well since last week with Partner, but it was a hearty laughter! But this is me fawning over it, but I just got that feeling rushing back to me to confirm why I love 90's films and why I obviously LOOOOVE Anil and Chichi. But as I'll show why this film is a chocolate cake for me!

We meet Raja(Anil Kapoor) and Gafoor(Johnny Lever) two crooks who sell black market train tickets, they hit the big time when they steal the loot of a corrupt cop, and they decide to go to Mumbai! At the airport Raja spots Neha, a gorgeous gal and falls in love!

Awww Anil on the conveyor belt of pyar

Raja sends Gafoor to check out who this gal is, Neha is a psychiatrist so Raja makes Gafoor play mad so he can meet her, what I love about this film is how Johnny Lever is tolerable, usually he played stupid parts that went on for too long in other films but here as a comic sidekick, he just works because he gets a good showcase of his talent and has good chemistry with Anil.

On the other side of town, we meet a fabulous Chichi as Bunnu, a very nervous guy full of phobias of fire, water, and heights, in a hilarious introduction scene we meet Chichi who's dad(Anupam Kher) is forcing him to go swimming, and YOU KNOW WHAT THIS CALLS FOR?

Chichi in some chuddis!

I think I just collapsed at this point!

Chichi loves his Paaw!

I know this is a comedy to display Anil and Chichi's comic appeal, but in the scenes where Bunnu hyperventilates Chichi acts wonderfully, even if its played for comedy, but it put me into a right AWWWWW cho chweet when he goes, "No, no noo!" Apart from all this, Bunnu goes to see Dr.Neha who consoles him and helps him out, another good scene of Chichi being semi serious when he explains his phobias!

Bunnu takes up all Neha's time, leaving Raja in the lurch and angry to find out who this meddlesome Bunnu is, not before singing a cute song, "Tere Bina Dil, Kya Karoon" which exemplifies why I loved the 90's way of movie making.

Full of mustard fields and lovely typical Anil posturing

And Chichi doing his dancing on a log truck...in Switzerland of course!

After this song Neha goes home to see her uncle(Shakti Kapoor) and his fiancée who've run off together, so Neha decides to get them married and cancels all her appointments including paranoid Bunnu! She tells her secretary not to reveal her location, but the two guys in another tradition play dressup as policemen, Raja and Gafoor from Haryana, which is hilarious as they lay the Punjabi accent on thick, and Chichi as the Police Commision of Maharashtra!

Loving Anil's bumpkin cut!

Ohh Chichi, you make my day!

They both land up in Ooty where Neha is, Raja on the pretense of buying a hotel and Bunnu who pretends to have attempted suicide, but this makes me happy inside because of the sheer fugliness of that goes on in these 90's days!

Anil has a trend to wear garish shirts with chains on them throughout this film!

Juhi sporting that waistcoat trend and ANil with his chain patterned scarf!

The two lovelorn men get to know eachother and proceed in a game of one oneupmanship to win Neha's heart, and Bunnu wises up to the many attempts on his life by Raja and steps it by adjusting Raja's motorbike, and he later lands in the hospital! Bunnu also is feeling very revitalized and normal, and unafraid of his phobias. And we get a funny rap from Govinda, who exercises all his fast dialogue delivery for this one, its really chuckle worthy to see Reema Lagoo and Anupam Kher almost cracking up during this. This crazy rap definitely reminded me of Donald 'O Connor craaazy dance in "Singin in the Rain" as Chichi does a million backflips and just generally impresses the heck out of me!

Chichi going that extra mile to impress me!

I leave it there and I hope you watch it because it is seriously a winner of a film, now onto something completely different!

The jodi! Anil and Chichi have the most cracking rapport with each other throughout this film, it reminded of the many Bob Hope and Bing Crosby on the "Road to anywhere Exotic" films, because with these two guys there is an easy repartee but a definite rivalry where they flex their own comedy in a very tongue-in-cheek way, that is both endearing as it is hilarious to watch. They both have different comedy stylings, where Anil seems more of a subtle comic performer and Chichi, well he's in his own league, he's in your face and full of mannerism and that amaazing screwball comedy way of zipping off his line, that wouldn't seem out of place in Hepburn-Grant film! And of course I must mention the wicked moments where Chichi and ANil take the piss out of their respective roles and do impressions of other actors, especially in moments where they tussle verbally over Neha, for example Raja and Bunnu get into a petty fight with dialogues like "Mein Coolie lagtha?" "Mein Loafer lagtha?" which deserves special mention because Anees Bazmee wrote the story, and we can see his penchant for self-referencing that comes up in Welcome and "Singh is Kinng" and all his other films!

My new favorite Jodi!

Looking back on this film makes me go "AWWWW the 90's!" and Deewana Mastana is a perfect example of a quintessential 90's films with its comedy style of having two heroes face off with each other, but for me it goes beyond all the usual trappings because of the absolutely excellent casting of the two heroes and the just general fun it is to see these two opposing comedic performances foiling against each other.

And of course the film holds together well because David Dhawan directed it, and I watched most of his films in my childhood and watching them at my age now, some of them hold up quite well, especially the absolutely nuts No.1 films that i was fed at a young age!

But I COULDN'T FORGET SOME CHUDDIS COULD I? Alas despite being 19, with this film David Dhawan seems to be asking me, "Rum do you think I could disappoint you without Chuddi clad Chichi and glorious closeups of your Anil?"

Perhaps Neha will be impressed by Chichi's chuddis

Or maybe David wants me to buy these Ray Bans?

Definitely check out Deewana Mastana for the two gorgeous men sparring in hilarious fashion, or to revel in all the fugliness that these kids wore back then!