Star cast: Boman Irani, Farah Khan, Honey Irani, Shammi

Producer: Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Sunil A Lulla

Story Writer: Sanjay Leela Bhansali

Music Director: Jeet Ganguli

Director: Bela Bhansali Sehgal

Duration: 1 Hr 52 Mins

Rating : ** 1/2

In the era, where Bollywood is already exhibiting a sea change in the cinematographic trends. "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" is another add on to the Bollywood's bunch of offbeat entertainers, showcasing the fact that love has no boundaries.

This debut flick of choreographer turned actress, Farah Khan accompanied by seasoned actor Boman Irani opened at multiplexes with an occupancy of 25 %, comprising of the masses from nearly all the age groups.

Synopsis:
"Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" is a cute love tale of middle aged bachelor and a spinster, destined to be bitten by the love-bug and their tryst with their courtship period accompanied by some sweet and sour moments.

"Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" somewhere resembles Late Hrishikesh Mukherjee's style of cinematography, where there use to be simple man with a golden heart who always manage to deal with his day to day problems without much ado or florid drama.


Story:
Farhad (Boman Irani) is salesman working at a women undergarment shop with a dream of setting up his own business in the similar domain. Besides it he's a middle aged Parsi bachelor living with his overbearing mother Nargis ( Honey Irani) and grandma ( Shammi), who are desperate to get him married. But all their efforts of getting Farhad married goes to pot, because of Farhads profession.

As the story proceeds amid the daily humdrum, Farhad has a rendezvous with a woman of his dreams Shirin Fugawala (Farah Khan), who drops by his store for shopping and there strikes the cupid.

Everything seemed to be heading towards the fair coast till the time Farhad introduces Shirin to his family, where the destiny had something else within its womb for the duo, for whom Farhad's mother turn into a rapscallion, on finding that Shirin is the same Parsi Trust Secretary, who got their illegal water tank demolished which use to be the last souvenir of Farhad's late father. As the story proceeds numerous cute and hilarious incidents emerge to take the story to its conclusion.


Script:
After portraying his excellence in direction, with "Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam", "Devdas" and "Black". This time Bhansali once again stepped in to the shoes of writer, though his last scripted cine tale "Guzarish" could not fare well on the BO, but this time Sanjay has somehow managed to draft a decent love tale of two middle aged protagonists.

But one thing which can't be negated about the script is, that besides being a unique theme it could have been better with a slightly high dose of romance and sharp humor which is somewhere important to pull masses to the cine arenas.

As far as narration is concerned then a couple of sequences portrayed on the screen seemed to be forced ones. In nut shell, "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" could have done better with a with a slightly higher dose of comedy or well-written romantic sequences.

Screenplay and Direction:
Another debutant who deserved to be patted for her commendable work is debuting director Bela Sehgal, who managed to handle this unique script knitted around the romance of two 45+ protagonists with a praiseworthy dexterity.

Though a few sequences in the movie seemed to be melodramatic but over all pace of the screenplay remains constant to offer a decent dose of entertainment. First half of the movie takes of at a soothing pace with a few unnecessarily knitted sequences but as the story proceeds it maintains a constant pace with no larger than life depictions or unnecessary melodrama.

On the other hand the humor quotient of the movie nowhere seems to be getting sarcastic, at the same time comedy punches never get too sharp to split you into laughter, but they are some what decent enough to bring a smile on the faces of the masses.

And the best part pertaining to "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi" is, that none of the components of the screenplay seems to be loitering out of proportions.


Dialogues:
Well as far as dialogues are concerned, then they somewhat lacked consistency because of the high savour-less coefficient. Though the Parsi dialect is very well carried by entire cast, but the bland dialogues and vacuous humor punches, somewhat impacted the entertainment quotient in adverse manner.

Acting / Performances:
Well, as far as the performance is concerned, then Boman seemed to be at his best. In "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi", Boman is a delight, who once again proved his mettle by performing the character of a middle aged bachelor with a flawless dexterity. Infact it won't be wrong to say that Boman's performance was a sort of standout performance, which set him apart from rest of the cast of the movie.

As far as Farah's performance is concerned then at a few places she seemed to be fumbling with the demand of the character, but over all she looked cute and succeeded in breaking away that first-timer shell which is usually seen clad around an established yet debuting celeb.

Honey very well carried her Parsi Mom and very well supplemented the lovable grandma avatar of Shammi.


Music / Lyrics:
Quite in accordance with the theme and the potential of the movie, music of "SFKTP" is peppy and lovable, with songs like "Ramba Mein Samba" in the voice of legendary Usha Uthap, "KukduKu, Khatti Meethi" and soulful number "Kaafir Andhere" in the voice of KK. On the other hand, background score too gels up well with the onscreen substance.

BO Potential:
Inspite of its being a laudable watch, it will be wrong to keep the expectation of any kind of BO miracles from "Shirin Farhad Ki Toh Nikal Padi", because of its offbeat nature and the absence of adorable A-graders in it. The movie is expected to receive an average reception on BO, which in itself is an achievement for such tales based on the unique ideas.


Verdict:
On the whole, "Shirin Farhaad Ki toh Nikal Padi" is a cute Rom-Com of veterans, which is worth a watch because it offers a decent amount of entertainment with a simple and unfussy premise.