Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge?
Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge? is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Ashwni Dhir, and produced by Amita Pathak. Loosely based on the short story Tum Kab Jaoge, Athithi? by Sharad Joshi, the film stars Ajay Devgn, Paresh Rawal and Konkona Sen Sharma. It was released on 5 March 2010. The film was a success earned nearly double its budget and was a commercial success. It received numerous nominations at Indian award ceremonies.
Plot
Puneet Bajpai, a movie scriptwriter, lives with his Bengali interior-designer wife Munmun and their six-year-old son Ayush in a high-rise apartment in Goregaon in Mumbai. Ayush repeatedly hopes for a guest to arrive at their home. The couple's happy life is upended when Lambodar Chacha, a distant uncle of Puneet's, turns up unannounced one morning and slaps the guard, causing a commotion. Lambodar was searching for a son of his late cousin Putani and, finding Puneet, refers to him as Pappu—which he is not accustomed to—and proceeds to take over the couple's life by making unreasonable demands, gargling loudly early in the morning, eating heavily and farting loudly. The couple is at their wits' end before long, but Ayush is overjoyed.Lambodar interferes in every aspect of their lives, from forcing the maid to quit her job after she is tired of being ordered around by him, to incessantly trying to catch Puneet's attention or calling him when he is not around. Others, however, are impressed by his display of devotion at the local temple, or his apparent ability to cure backaches by kicking the sufferer in their rear. A desperate Puneet, on one occasion, gets himself arrested so that he can complete his script without Lambodar's well-meant interference.
One day Puneet brings Lambodar to his film set, built on a grand scale. There Lambodar requests an actor —Kaalia of Sholay fame—repeatedly to repeat his famous dialogue from that film, much to the latter's vexation. A distraught Kaalia tries to escape Lambodar and reaches the set of a mansion, which is to be blown up on the count of two. However, an undeterred Lambodar once again asks Kaalia to say his dialogue, and on hearing the word 'two', the bomb operator blows up the mansion well before time, leading to an irate director firing Puneet for the loss of his fifty-lakh-rupee set.
By now Puneet, now jobless, and Munmun are desperately hoping for Lambodar to leave, he having stayed for well over two months. They ask a friend acting in a TV serial to fake a relative's death so that Lambodar will depart, but the friend gets arrested instead after Lambodar sees through the hoax. On another occasion the couple has to go to Delhi; Munmun arranges for Lambodar's train tickets and pretends to be tearful when he leaves, but they later discover that Lambodar jumped off the train and returned to their flat. The couple books a hotel room one night along with Ayush, but Puneet is arrested when a police raid discovers him apparently 'molesting' Munmun. They then hire a don to send Lambodar back, but Lambodar instead takes him home, thus saving his life because he would otherwise have been shot by a rival gang.
Time passes and Puneet is accepted back into his job as the director asks to be pardoned. On the occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi, during the immersion celebrations at Juhu beach, Lambodar goes missing in a stampede, and Puneet spends the night at a hospital hoping he was not killed. He returns home in the morning only to find Lambodar hale and hearty, and the couple begs for forgiveness as Lambodar is about to leave. At this point a second son of Putani's arrives—the actual Pappu—and asks Lambodar to stay at his home, apologising profusely for the confusion as the his flat number was the same as Puneet's, but in a different tower in the same housing society.
Cast
- Ajay Devgn as Puneet Bajpai
- Konkona Sen Sharma as Munmun Bajpai
- Paresh Rawal as Lambodar Chacha
- Satish Kaushik as Ranjeet Taneja
- Sanjay Mishra as Building Watchman
- Akhilendra Mishra as Suleiman Bhai
- Viju Khote as Kaalia
- Mukesh Tiwari as Inspector
- Rohitash Gaud as Niranjan Tripathi
- Hrishikesh Joshi as Godbole saab
- Nataliya Kozhenova as Sonia
- Mac Mohan
Production
Reception
The film received average to good ratings from the critics. Taran Adarsh from Bollywood Hungama rated it 3.5 out of 5, and claimed that the film was "fun" and "frolic" for all. Komal Nahta gave it 3/5 and explained how it should be acclaimed for its family love, and the great message at the end.Box office
Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge had an "average" opening at the box office, and took about a 35% opening, which is a typical trend for films in the family comedy/drama genre. The collections picked up through good word of mouth and sustained well at the box office for eight weeks despite competition from other films and IPL cricket tournament held during the same time. The film worked well with family audiences but did not find a large youth audience. The film did a domestic gross of 390 million. It was declared an average grosser by Box Office India.Music
The songs featured in the movie are composed by Amit Mishra and Pritam Chakraborty while the lyrics are by Irshad Kamil. The film score was composed by Sanjoy Chowdhury. The soundtrack was released on 20 February 2010. "Aaja Aaja" and its remix are composed by Pritam while the rest were by Amit MishraTrack | Singer | Composer |
"Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge" | Amit Mishra | Amit Mishra |
"Jyoti Jalaile" | Sukhwinder Singh | Amit Mishra |
"Aaja Aaja" | Raghuvir Yadav, Ajay Jhingran & Rajneesh | Pritam Chakraborty |
"Dohe" | Amit Mishra | Amit Mishra |
"Sukhakarta" | Amit Mishra | Amit Mishra |
"Aaja Aaja " | Raghuvir Yadav, Ajay Jhingran & Rajneesh | Pritam Chakraborty |
Adaptation
Author and cartoonist Abid Surti has sued makers of Atithi Tum Kab Jaoge claiming that story is directly lifted from his Gujarati novel Bauter Varas No Babo published in 1976, which was later translated in Hindi as Bahatar Saal Ka Baccha. He has filed a case with The Film Writers Association and has demanded Rs 11.5 million as compensation, the case is still pending judgment.Awards and nominations
- Won: Apsara Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role – Paresh Rawal
- Nominated: Best Comedian – Paresh Rawal
Sequel