The 'After Hrs' review: 'Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baki Hai'

Film: Mere Dost Picture Abhi Baki Hai
Director: Rajnish Raj Thakur
Cast: Suniel Shetty, Rajpal Yadav, Udita Goswami, Om Puri
Rating: *

The title is catchy alright inspired from Shah Rukh Khan’s dialogue in Om Shanti Om. But this Picture… that had an interesting premise leaves a lot baki. In one line it is about the Benares based Amar Joshi’s (Suniel Shetty) yearn to turn a film director.

Amar is obsessed with movies as a kid — he bunks school and later college to watch films on videos. When his father yells at him, he starts a video parlour himself — which he then sells off and goes to London to study filmmaking. He returns to India with the intention of turning his script Cheekh into a film. He joins hands with his friend Sooraj (Rajpal  Yadav) — a junior artiste in films who helps him with the numbers of producers. Amar meets every Bollywood producer, but nobody wants to make a film based on his script about a fearless journalist Indu Verma, who gets raped while unearthing a medical scam. Each one wants to commercialise it, but Amar refuses. Finally, one Monty (Rakesh Bedi) agrees and ropes in a top heroine Mohini (Udita Goswami) to make the film financially viable. The film, after a few days of shoot, is stalled because of Monty’s disappearance. Enter an underworld don, who tells Amar to continue with the shoot, but forces him to cast his moll in the film. It’s time for an item number after which the don is dead. Suddenly, Monty is back in the picture and the film continues. This time the film is hijacked by a script writer Baig (Om Puri), who changes the film completely. From a solo heroine project, it becomes a triangular love story with the scam in the backdrop. Amar is reluctant to make the film, but has no choice.  When they do manage to release the trailer, they face the ire of a woman’s organisation and get beaten up. They land up in jail, but Monty uses it as part of the publicity for the film and both the movie and Amar are released at the same time. The film is a super duper hit, and Amar ends up winning an award.

While the story is promising, the goings-on are drab and the humour is OTT. Suniel Shetty is strictly okay while Rajpal turns up his usual comic act. Besides that, the film has nothing to write home about.