Hari Puttar: A Comedy of Terrors (2008)

Genre:

Comedy | Family

Plot:

Set in the background of lush green England, this tale of two intrepid kids resonates with that most fundamental character traits of adventure and fun...

Cast

Rez Kempton	...	Amul
Zain Khan	...	Hari Puttar
Swini Khara	...	Tuk Tuk
Vijay Raaz	...	Filter
Sarika	...	Hari Puttar's Mother
Shamita Shetty
Jackie Shroff	...	Uncle DK
Saurabh Shukla	...	Diesel
Manmeet Singh	...	Pizza man

Runtime:

India:90 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color (35 mm version)

Embarrassing comedy that fails to amuse

When I heard about "Hari Puttar" for the first time, the title made me smile and hope for a nice Harry Potter parody or anything else even loosely based on Harry Potter. After all, there are numerous Harry Potter clones ("Tanya Grotter" in Russia, "Porri Gatter" in Belarus, "Barry Trotter" in Germany, etc.), so why couldn't there be a nice Bollywood version? Especially all the noise Time Warner made about it was all I needed to go and purchase it.

What a waste! First of all, the movie has nothing in common with Harry Potter at all. On the contrary, it seems to be a loose remake of "Home Alone". It is the story of a boy and a girl who were "forgotten" by their parents when they left for a trip, and now find themselves forced to defend the house against two clumsy bad guys. Obviously, the movie is supposed to be a comedy, but as such it has become a complete failure. The so-called humour is of the lowest standard. The scenario is a bad joke in itself, characterised by the silliest texts one can imagine, the story lacks a single good idea, and the acting is plain horrible. Even the presence of such capable actors as Jackie Shroff and Lilette Dubey cannot be of any help here.

This is one of the worst movies I've ever seen. Yet, I don't even think Hari Puttar will ever make it into a cult movie of the "so bad it's good" type. The movie is just embarrassing, not amusing at all, and poorly made. In fact, it is one of the rare movies that have made me angry.

Somebody called it an "average film but an entertaining one for kids". Well, if I were a kid, I would feel insulted by such low level. In my opinion, this movie is neither average nor entertaining; it's merely boring and utterly silly. Obviously, its creators don't have a clue regarding kids. As a matter of fact, Hari Puttar has only one advantage: for Bollywood standards, it is extremely short. But even then, 90 minutes were more than enough to make me yawn with relief when it was finally over.

In other words: don't waste your time and/or your money!