Phas Gaya Re Obama

Yes, we can! Possibly this is the first mass market commercial movie in the world with President Obama's name in the title. Yes, Bollywood, you can and you did too! The movie is what is part of the thriving Bollywood indie movie genre, the one which replaced the award-hauling parallel cinema of the eighties, which were made under an altruistic sky with little or no profit motive. The new indies are funny, contemporary and bring in the bucks, good for them!

Looks to me it was a low budget film which trusted on its strong actors and tight script to see it through. Rajat Kapoor, Manu Rishi, Sanjay Mishra, Neha Dhupia reigning and rising stalwarts of the new Indian parallel cinema shoulder the film as it takes dig after dig at the contemporary politics and policing in bhaiyyaland. Obama's inclusion as an invisible but driving force and the pervading ambience of recession reflects on the trickle of globalization that has reached even the remotest corners of India's heartland.

It is an interesting movie for someone who loves current politics and comedy(one and the same), intelligent caricatures of everyday people and is interested in the way India is developing in the global scene as echoed back from its villages.