Review: 'Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande' is like pocket dynamite

Film: Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande
Director: Parvin Dabas
Cast: Parvin Dabas, Ashish Nayyar, Vansh Bharadwaj, Kuldip Ruhil and others
Rating: ***

First impressions go a long way sometimes. The first promo of Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande (SDGB) I saw about a month ago seemed promising, and had a positive vibe about it. Thankfully, it also translates into a fairly watchable, entertaining and breezy film.

Actor Parvin Dabas, who impressed in films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, takes over the directorial rein and casts himself in the lead. As Rajbir, Dabas leads his gang of punters, including Doctor (Ruhil), Sexy (Bharadwaj) and Ambani (Nayyar). All of them from a village on the outskirts of Delhi, the boys work for gangster Fauji (Sharat Saxena), and indulge in small-time kidnapping and general gundagiri.

A year after being in jail, Rajbir returns to find his village to have come under the government’s land acquisition policy. Wanting to make a quick buck, but at the same time support the movement started by a group of motley villagers to get back their property, Rajbir devises a plan.

The pay-off could be fatal, with Fauji supporting the government, even though his three friends are willing to put their lives on the line for Rajbir. What they want to do is noble, but are they the wrong guys for the job?

Dabas pens a fairly engaging script, peppered with some witty one-liners and a fast-moving story. The humour is smart, the setting desi and the execution fresh. Dabas keeps things simple, relying on his taut script rather than unwanted frills. Nothing in the film jars, or comes across as not required. The background score and songs are interspersed in the narrative effectively.

The budget is low, so technical finesse isn’t exactly the order of the day, while the tempo falls slightly in the second half. But at a little over two hours, there’s rarely a dull moment in SDGB.

While Dabas is competent, Ashish Nayyar gets the best lines and does a good job of it too. Both Vansh Bharadwaj and Kuldip Ruhil fit the bill. Saxena, Yashpal Sharma, Anupam Kher, Kiran Juneja, Udit Khuarana, Tena Desae and Neena Kulkarni constitute an effective supporting cast.

Keeping up the tradition of small-budget films that impress with good stories over the last couple of years, Sahi Dhandhe Galat Bande is a film that can be enjoyed without the baggage of exceedingly high expectations.

It’s a bit like a pocket dynamite - small, but effective. Give it a shot.