Film: Rama Rama Kya Hai Drama

Director: Chandrakant Singh  

Producer: Surendra Bhatia, Rajan Prakash 

Cast: Anupam Kher, Rajpal Yadav, Rati Agnihotri, Neha Dhupia, Amrita Arora, Aashish Chaudhary, Mona Thiba, Sanjay Mishra, Razzak Khan, Allan Kapoor, Zia Biswas, Riya Biswas 

Rating: 3/10 

Rama Rama kya hain yeh drama? Very much the question one asks repeatedly throughout the duration of the movie. Two pretty girls you don’t really care about, one ok-looking boy but a bad actor and one a dedicated hammer who manages to somewhat control himself, form the pillars of this small tasteless film. Humdrum best describes S. Chandrakant’s comic offering this. 

The movie revolves around two married couples and their marital woes. Through the length of the film, most relationship problems between young married couples are tackled with some brave attempts at comedy that should make you roar. You have a bank manager constantly compelled by his rich and beautiful wife to prove that he loves her as much as she loves him. Then you have a cashier in the same bank having adjustment problems with his newly-wed wife before even beginning to have a relationship. Then you have the same guy imagining himself as the husband of all and sundry women. All this then ends in a convenient and tidy end with all lessons learnt and all complaints solved for life.  

To be fair to the movie, it has a fairly interesting set-up to keep one’s interest. But sadly what one understands as the set-up is the plot and that weakens the screenplay a great deal. Like they say, it all lies in the telling of it. 

From then on (i.e. after one realises that the set-up is the plot) things progress decidedly downwards. While waiting for something more meaningful or interesting to happen one notices a bit of enjoyable humour element Rajpal Yadav infuses, that Neha Dhupia is not really a bad actress at all and that Amrita Arora, though pretty needs cheek liposuction ASAP.  

The tackiness of the film irks in almost every frame. The dearth of any production value makes one weep especially when confronted with actors who are as bad-looking as they act bad as they are dressed badly. One is also saddened by the presence of the likes of Rati Agnihotri and Anupam Kher in this thoroughly ignorable pot-pourri. 

Some insipid and uninspiring direction helps the film no extent to head downwards. Lack of a strong message combined with a zeal to preach kills the very soul of the film. The film has its comic elements but without getting the audience to connect with the principal characters, engaging them into its world or even making the subject matter remotely interesting the comedy fails to inspire any serious laughs of endearment or plain merry mirth. That’s quite a sad story to tell.  

To a large extent, acting of the principal characters saves the day. Rajpal Yadav as the harassed husband puts in quite a surprisingly restrained performance despite the character having immense scope for going haywire. His comic style seems to have mellowed and if it’s the director’s touch then full marks to him for showing us what more is he capable of besides hamming. Nevertheless, he reminds one too much of his role in ‘Main meri patni aur woh’ and other such half-sensible roles he has essayed. He will need to go a long way to really prove his versatility. Neha Dhupia is good in a limited role of a middle-class small-town housewife frustrated by her husband. One wishes she was given more screen space especially as the wife of Yadav. Ashish Chaudhury never was a good actor and consistently shows that he just won’t learn. Nevertheless, he doesn’t do a lot of harm to the (already harmed) film. He delivers what is expected within the limits of his role and so does Amrita Arora. Although she is quite an eyeful, one is also thankful that she is given as much limited screen-time as Ashish. She was great as a veejay. But as a heroine… 

Rama Rama Kya Hain Yeh Drama is a ho-hum comedy about the war of the sexes within the boundaries of holy matrimony. It aims to teach and preach and show a perspective to relationships which is commendable in today’s times of mindless comedies. It fails at succeeding on any level is the sad truth which the cash registers will eventually demonstrate. Give away your ticket money in donation instead. At least it will give you lot of peace of mind.