Delhi Belly

Was it funny? Yes. Have I seen funnier movies? Yes. I think because of all the hype that surrounded it I was a tad disappointed. It was funny and it made me laugh but it did not quite live up to my over-hyped expectations.

The movie has received a lot of flak for its offensive dialogues and obscenity. It (at least the English version) has clearly been targeted at a very specific audience (city bred folks in the 20-40 age groups). As a big fan of the Hangover franchise, obscenity in movies doesn’t particularly offend or bother me. If it’s funny and makes me laughs then I don’t really care. I just do my research in advance and make sure I watch the movie with the right company. No point squirming in your seat with a parent or aunt in the seat next to you. I can picture it in my head. Me sitting there trying not to laugh because Oh My God then they will know that I know what ‘that’ means!

In the case of Delhi Belly, I think there were a few dialogues that were put there solely for shock value. They didn’t really add much to the humor in the film. This makes me wonder why they put them there in the first place.  Maybe they wanted to give older generations a crash course on how the youth today talks. Situational obscenity I understand. It is required to make the scene funny. But random R-rated statements just end up sounding a little lame.

I think the highlight was the villain’s sidekick saying ‘Boss, yeh tho tatti hai’! They should have made a children’s version as well!! J So many kids are missing out on the tatti and fart jokes in this movie. By the way, the husband and I had an Orange juice vs. Paper debate after the movie. What would be a better option during a ‘no water to clean ass’ emergency? Well, tissue paper would definitely be better than orange juice but how many Indian households really have tissue paper? So I think if it is tissue paper vs. orange juice then definitely tissue paper. But if its newspaper vs. orange juice then it gets tricky. Hmmm. Maybe some old rags, t-shirts and towels should be kept aside.

Disclaimer: I watched the English version in the US and I hear that the Hindi version has been largely toned down and I won’t be surprised if scenes were censored as well.