Yeh Hai India, Review: NREye

Indians settled abroad are called Non-Resident Indians, or NRIs. Not surprisingly, many of them still nurse feelings of love for the land of their birth, or of their fathers, and the often feel guilty pangs of separation from their motherland. Actor-producer-writer-director Manoj Kumar (real name Harikishen Goswami) made some hard hitting and box-office shattering patriotic films in the 60s and 70s, right till the early 80s, that earned him the epithet of Mr. Bharat (Bharat is the constitutional name of India, in the Hindi language. One of these, called Purab Aur Paschim (East and West), dealt with the plight and pathos of NRIs. Manoj lost the plot in the 90s and, over the next 15 years, turned out several duds that undid all his good work.

Yeh Hai India picks up where Manoj left off and tries to preach the message of ‘love thy country’ through the eyes of an NRI, who, while visiting India for the first time in his life, emerges a holier-than-thou hero. The film is based on its writer-director's real-life journey to several countries and his observations on the thoughts and views of other people about India. What emerges is an India that the foreigners and NRIs perceive as an impoverished country where cows roam the streets, snake charmers are a sine qua non fixture, dirt and grime fill the air, and beggars haunt every junction.

Counter-balancing against these ‘mis-perceptions’, our 25 year-old hero is out to sell a different India to Indians and foreigners alike, and India that has produced the world’s greatest cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar, though the game is a British invention; an India that beat the world in its Mission Mars; an India that was chosen as the permanent abode of the holy icon of generosity and charity, European saint Mother Teresa.

Micky was born and brought up in U.K and shares the stereotype negative views about India. He is engaged to be married, but insists on visiting India with his British fiancée, before taking the plunge. She is going to join him later, so he proceeds alone and arrives ‘somewhere in India’, according to a title card. But it is obvious that the place is Rajasthan. A Sardar taxi-driver gives him his first taste of India, while for the rest of the tour he has his friend, Pandit, who was in England for a few years, but came back because he was targetted and beaten on account of his nationality.

Right under the nose of the authorities, there is a forced begging racket flourishing, with the blessings of the son of the State Minister of Tourism. Micky takes on the operators, and, at great peril to life and limb, busts the operation. Overnight, he becomes a sensation, and a TV star. This proves what many people tell him about India, that the only two professions that are popular here are that of politicians and actors. Not to be outwitted, the tourism minister’s son brainwashes his gullible and cranky father into taking drastic action against his adversary. Pandit is killed and Micky is put behind bars.

Australian citizen Lom Harsh, who is of Indian extraction and traces his roots to Rajasthan, has written and directed the film, besides playing the role of the 6’ 2”, burly son of the Tourism Minister. An interior designer by profession, holder of a diploma in film-making and a Master’s Degree in Administration, Lom Harsh made his debut with a short film called Chicken Biryani, which was followed by Chicken Biryani 2. Yeh Hai India (English title This Is India) is his feature film debut and was to release in the summer of 2017.  It reached cinema halls today, two years too late. Harsh has given-up his Australian citizenship and now lives in Mumbai.

As writer, Harsh has created some convincing characters, like Micky and his father, but almost all the others are either caricatures or hackneyed stereotypes. Even Micky looks ridiculous when he jumps over a wall and knocks down the guards at the beggar trade hideout. What’s more, he then proceeds to decimate the opposition, with no a priori or a posteriori information about his amazing prowess. Navdeepak Singh ‘Gavie’, Chahal, also 6’2”, as Micky, carries his friend’s ashes across the whole of north India, only to bring them back. Aged 38 when he shot for the film, he does not look 25, as the character demands. 33 is more like it. What do you do with such a role, even though you have films like Ek Tha Tiger and Tiger Zinda Hai behind you?

Deana Uppal as Micky’s British fiancée who has an ambivalent attitude towards India, which turns hostile when she sees what Micky is going through, is passable. Mohan Agashe as the PM is type-cast, with a very brief appearance at the end. Mohan Joshi as the Tourism Minister hams, a trait he is not known for. Surendra Pal spouts some unnecessary home-truths, like Indians do not shake hands with elders, rather, touch their feet. A pale shadow of his Mahabhaarat days, Pal fails to make any significant impact. As Micky’s childhood pal Pandit, Ashutosh Kaushik has little to convey, except his back-story. Though he is around, he is just a part of the landscape; not his fault in the least.

Antara Banerjee plays a TV reporter, like any other actress would. Bikramjeet Kanwarpal, again an actor who is restricting himself to a very narrow span of roles, has the most ill-defined role in the film. Supposed to be an Interrogator, he is modelled after Hollywood incarnations, but in this film, you would not even know he is an Interrogator unless someone told you, or you read in the end credits. Made to look much older, Ajit Shidhaye impresses in a relatively minor role as Micky’s rich father.

As his Manager/Partner, Jan Bostock stands for all the evils British are capable off, only he sits on a garden chair and spouts the venom that he would spread on the ground had he been with the East India Company 75 years ago. Casting himself as the Tourism Minister’s son, Lom Harsh’s menacing villainy, mixed with farcical foolishness, is outdone only by two regular buffoons, AJ (Sadanand Sharma) and VJ (Devesh Panwar), who dress like Jeetendra in the 60s and 70s, Mithun in the 70s and 80s and Ranveer Singh in the 2010s. Producer Sandeep Chaudhary, reportedly a builder from Jaipur, appears in a cameo, all suited and booted, with nothing to do.

Five songs, including a title track and a two-version, male-female number, are composed by Raja Hassan and sung by a host of vocalists, might have stood a chance of growing on us had they not been part of the film. Cinematography Balaji V. Rangha and editing by Vinay Pal are of suspect merit. Language has large doses of English and can be considered a bi-lingual in itself, with the English dialogue not so bad at all.

Some concerns were raised regarding some of the dialogues in the movie by Saba Sikander, a Pakistani social activist, on YouTube, about a piece of dialogue: "Lekin humen sirf yeh kehna hae ki vaaqayee men agar qaanoon aor vyavastha sabkey liye ek samaan naheen hae, toh banaa deejiye ek aor nayaa Pakistan unkey liye...." (If law and order is not the same for everyone, then create another new Pakistan). She stated, "Once again Bollywood has pitched a demand to divide the nation and it has again tried to belittle our nation the same way it has been doing so since years... Pakistan does have objections on this film." Lom replied that these comments don't hold ground, as he stands with the freedom of expression granted to all artistes in India. "As a writer, I have the freedom to put forth my thoughts in the best way and this controversy holds no water as people should first watch the film and then make a viewpoint," he added.

Yes, this is India. And yes, this is a film about India. It is a patriotic film about India, but a very poorly made patriotic film about India. We had a film called Oh Darling Yeh Hai India (1995) and another called India’s Most Wanted that has arrived along with Yeh Hai India just today. The last mentioned has nothing desirable in it, to be most wanted, and certainly nothing to earn the amorous adjective of Darling. It is a view of India as seen by an NRI’s eye, eye, not eyes, so it is only half a picture. Okay, one-and-a-half.

Rating: * ½  

Trailer: www.facebook.com/YehHaiIndiaMovie/videos/vb.707823735951196/1382521831814713/?type=2&theater