/> Starring Ajay Devgan, Ayesha Takiya, Irrfan Khan, Arshad Warsi
Directed by Rohit Shetty
Rating: **

Staying sassy, staying clever, and staying steps ahead of the viewers....Sunday is a fiesta of scenes stitched together to create a harmony of hilarity.

If being clever with the suspense element within the comic format is a hallmark of a workable film, then Sunday works.

Pieced together as a bizarre amnesiac day in the life of a forgetful frisky fey fraulein (Takiya, superbly sparkling), the format of narration is as old as the hills ...or as old as Orson Welles' Citizen Kane where a journalist went from door to door trying to piece together the mysterious life of a dead star.

If Heath Ledger was Ayesha Takia Sunday would be the fun version of Citizen Kane.

There's a dead girl at the beginning of this pulverized plot to make you believe there's life beyond farce in the comic genre. She's shot down point-blank.

Blanked-out is how Saher (Ayesha Takiya) is as she gets embroiled in what seems to be a denouement reached in a narrative relay- race where every character holds the key to the girl's mysterious whereabouts on that fitful Sunday.

What lifts the rather involved plot is the insouciant spirit. Everyone is running helter-skelter down the road parodic perdition with the purpose getting to the home base, so the plot wears a harnessed homogenized feel about it.

Some of the comic bustle like Irrfan as Ravan running after a speeding car on the highway, is quite remarkable.Others, not quite the epitome of satire. But chalega.

Cinematographer Aseem Bajaj captures Delhi with a locational luminosity. The bustle of the Capital is capitalized upon in a climate of comic nonchalance. And yet we get the touristic spots, specially the Lal Quila with the fresh enthusiasm of seasoned travelers exploring known territory with virgin enthusiasm.

The narration is tightly wound. Director Rohit Shetty avoids the inherent silliness of the comic genre by bringing the characters together in a see-saw of she-saw-she-saw-it-not.

What happened to silly Saher or Sunday night? Do we really care? No! but the chase has its moments of humour, and this comedy is way ahead of the all-boys raunchy material that has been masquerading as genuine mirth in recent times.

But it's nothing that you'd like to recommend as mandatory essential training for mirthful manoeuverings in the comic camp.

The campy humour includes a cabbie (Arshad Warsi) and a hammy struggling actor (Irrfan Khan) who get embroiled in Saher's Sunday –evening suspense. Warsi and Khan make the proceedings more perky bubbly and frothy than what the plot would have been in other less capable hands.

Blessedly there's no dearth of comic talent in this comedy of terrors. Even the usually-ferocious Mukesh Tiwari as the corrupt cop's sidekick gets in his satirical two-bit sideways. Then there's a gangster with squeaky voice who chases Takiya so hard you fear for his knees.

Takiya has a breathless pacy personality, here used to advantage as she goes through some endearing moments as a dubbing artiste who forgot to dub the lines of her life one Sunday.

As for Mr Devgan playing the eminently bribable cop, you can't bribe the audience into buying his attempts at the funny stuff.

Director Rohit Shetty gives us more reason to be happy than any other recent comedy. Which is not to say that Sunday is a hilarious romp. It evokes occasional giggles and spurts of laughter while eliciting some admiration for its unusual editing patterns.

Bas, that's it.