Funny peculiar rather than funny ha ha

I'll be honest. I haven't watched many Indian films and I suppose the silly story, about a middle aged shopkeeper being called up to the England cricket team, may not be out of place in the genre. I say middle aged. I know he was meant to be 34, but good looks don't make you look young.

There were a couple of things that genuinely surprised me though. One was the child being slapped in the face, which seemed completely out of place in light comedy, and the other was the casual racism of Bauji towards the Gora (or "British" as it was translated in the subtitles). It all seemed a bit Abu Qatada in the current climate.

The English subtitles were pretty awful. I watched it with someone who couldn't read the subtitles due to poor eyesight, but who speaks Punjabi and Hindi. We tried to match up what the cast were saying with the subtitles, and there were a lot of pointless differences. In some cases the English subtitles were different to the words the characters were speaking - when they were speaking English! There were some very funny spelling mistakes too.

Also, given that Gattu's place in the England team was due to the recommendation of an Ex-England captain (Nasser Hussain), who was born in India, and who (in this film anyway) speaks a bit of Punjabi, you do wonder why he didn't just pop round with Mr Bedi and remind Bauji what England was these days. Particularly given that Monty Panesar had already been playing for England for 5 years when this film was made.

One the whole though I spent a fairly enjoyable evening watching this, but only because it was a shared experience. I suspect the fast forward might have been used had I been on my own.




"I'm entitled. Simple. End of.."