Tere Bin Laden Dead or Alive (2016) Review!!

Synopsis – A Bollywood director is hired by an American talent agent to make a film on Osama bin Laden. The plan to use an Osama doppelganger in order to prove his death boomerangs when a Taliban arms dealer hijacks their idea to prove he’s alive.

My Take – About six years ago, writer-director Abhishek Sharma (The Shaukeens) made a comedy which turned out to be one of the most refreshing Hindi films of that year. The dig at global politics & the amount of cheekiness shown in the film was widely lapped up. It had a clever spin on current affairs, as a TV reporter desperate to get to the US sniffs an opportunity when he spots an Osama bin Laden lookalike and hatches the audacious plan of making a threatening tape. The success of the 2010 venture obviously prompted this sequel, which honestly is not a bad film, nor is it a great sequel to the hugely popular Tere Bin Laden. This sequel fails where the 1st one succeeded, mainly due to a poor script. However the film is filled with completely crazy and zany scenes, and some comic punches/ ideas do hold the viewers attention. The story follows Sharma (Manish Paul), the heir to a halwai shop in Chandni Chowk, unyokes himself from the family vocation and flees to Mumbai to make movies. He encounters Paddi Singh (Pradhuman Singh), a farmer with a striking resemblance to Osama bin Laden, and hits upon an idea for a film Tere Bin Laden. Yes! the original film is shown as a film starring Pakistani pop star Ali Zafar & directed by Sharma. The success of the film helps Sharma to convince the producers Shetty sisters to make a sequel to the film sans the star struck Ali Zafar. However when the real Osama Bin Laden is killed in the U.S. operation in Abbottabad, Pakistan, the sequel is shelved rendering both Sharma & Paddi jobless. Meanwhile, back in the US, President Barack Obama (Iman Crosson) is being pressurized by the media to provide proof of Bin Laden’s death.

In order to that he sends CIA’s kingpin, David (Sikander Kher) to pull off a ruse by shooting a fake film portraying his death. In the mix are also extremist followers of Bin Laden, who in order to confuse the world also want Paddi Singh to make a fake video. This is an all out spoof film, the film spoofs the prequel, spoofs Bollywood, they even spoof the killing of Bin Laden, and the way the American government works. While with these ideas could have led to a great comedy it ends up being a muddled attempt at best. Almost 20 minutes of the film is wasted in paying homage to the Ali Zafar starrer. And Mr Zafar returns to play a womanizer and a troublesome, snooty actor (in the film) who is busy dancing away to a song called Six Pack abs. The film then shifts between American intelligence and terrorist organizations’ need to find Osama or someone who looks like him. A comedy of errors begin and there is absolutely no thrill in this no brainer. There are long moments when the pace slackens and the jokes are either too trite or wrung out. But there are several superbly silly bits: Khalili presides over a mujaheddin Olympics with sports such as dodging landmines; US President Barack Obama, haunted by the specter of Osama, visits a shrink called Dr. MacGuffin; and there’s a news anchor who makes theatrical gestures as he announces sensational headlines much in the manner of Hindi newscasters. The Olympia-e-dehshat, where terrorists battle it out to win a suicide jacket signed by Osama Bin Laden himself & the way the American government played drone attacks was hilarious too! But like many such spoofs, the premise of Sharma’s script is built on the stupidity of its protagonists and the even lower IQ of the supporting cast, specifically a Gujarati-speaking writer (Chirag Vohra), a make-up artist and “method actor” (Sugandha Garg), a mimic (Rahul Singh) and the militant leader (Piyush Mishra). If the original scored for the performances, humorous script and energetic direction, this re visitation fumbles on all these fronts.

The jokes are desperate, the performances so hammy they hurt, and the meta device overused to the point of misplaced self-congratulation, since this story was obviously dead on arrival. Acting wise Sikandar gives a standout performance here. It turns out, has a talent for parody. The actor, who was last seen three years ago in Aurangzeb, is giddily ridiculous with his southern twang, toothy grin and visible layers of foundation. He’s also amusing when he, as David Something, pretends to be Hollywood producer David Chaddha in a ploy to gull Sharma and Singh. The way he does the American, and Punjabi accent is amazing (its very authentic), and with extensive makeup job he is unrecognizable. His character will have you in splits (probably the only time you really laugh). Piyush Mishra has the best dialogues to mouth, and his whole angle of terrorists being poor after the death Osama, is funny. If only his character got more substantial screen time. Pradhuman Singh‘s character of Osama loses a lot of novelty during the course of the film because his role is to redundant. There is nothing new to offer, other than same jokes. Manish Paul’s comic timing is best reserved for television. He is never an actor and his character seems to have walked out from the sets of Mickey Virus. On the whole, ‘Tere Bin Laden Dead or Alive‘ is an average film at best, and really doesn’t live up to its very enjoyable prequel.