June 1, 2007
 By Debashine Thangevelo
Director: R Balakrishnan
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Paresh Rawal, Tabu, Zohra Sehgal, Swini Khara
Classification: TBA
Running Time: 150 minutes
Rating: ****
Viewers will inevitably fall in love with R Balakrishnan's bittersweet romance, Cheeni Kum. And there are several reasons why the film works: the story of a 64-year-old man falling in love with a 34-year-old woman is handled with the maturity it demands, the director adopts a realistic approach in telling their tale and strikes gold with the stellar cast and child star, Swini Khara, who plays Sexy (her pet name).
The characters at the heart of the story are Buddhadev Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan) and Nina Verma (Tabu). Buddhadev is the owner of Spice 6, a stylish, bustling Indian restaurant in London. He is pompous, cynical and his best friend is a sharp-witted 9-year-old, suffering from leukaemia.
Buddhadev's first meeting with Nina is unpleasant; she makes the grave mistake of complaining about a dish served at his restaurant.
After giving her a dressing down and challenging her to first learn how to cook the dish herself, Buddhadev learns that the chef who prepared her meal had accidentally added sugar instead of salt.
Buddhadev eventually bumps into Nina one rainy day, but can't bring himself to apologise to her and ends up lending her his umbrella, which becomes a catalyst for their future meetings, to make amends
.
Despite being complete opposites - Buddhadev is a vegetarian who doesn't like a lot of sugar and Nina loves chicken and sugary treats - they fall in love.
Buddhadev's 84-year-old mother, played by Zohra Sehgal, who loves watching Sex and the City and bodybuilders doing their thing, and is constantly nagging her son to start gyming, is thrilled that he has found someone to spend his life with, but Nina's diabetic father, Omprakash (Paresh Rawal), is against the relationship.
Cheeni Kum is an endearing tale, sans tacky song and dance scenes, and Balakrishnan does a deft job maintaining a balance between the poignant and lighthearted scenes, especially the ones with Colgate, the bucktoothed waiter, played by Krishna Bhatt. Bachchan's scenes with Khara are touching. She is completely lovable with her cheery and adult outlook on life.
Tabu holds her own against the inimitable Bachchan. Their playful interaction as a couple falling in love resonates strongly with audiences.
Rawal gets ample leeway to expand his character and he dominates in his scenes with Bachchan, where he turns his prospective son-in-law into a tense schoolboy.
Cheeni Kum is indicative of the changing face of Hindi cinema and the subject is sensitively handled without being preachy or condescending.
  
 
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