Where's the Party Yaar?

This is a movie about an Asian Indian family living in the United States. Mo Bakshi (Kal Penn) was raised in the U.S., is familiar with the way of life and is considered one of the cool kids. Harishkumar Patel (Sunil Malhotra), or Hari for short, is what the americanized Indians referred to as "FOBs" or Fresh Off the Boat.

Hari comes to the U.S. in order to go to college. Before he goes, he is foretold by his family in India that his true love will fall on him like lightning from the sky, that her name began with the letter "P" and would fall in love with him on the night of a full moon. On his first day in class he meets Priya (Tina Cherian). Actually, she trips onto him and he interprets this as falling from the sky and chases her for the remainder of the movie.

Throughout the movie, the FOBs are trying to get into the cool parties while guys like Mo and his buddies do their best to keep them out. I suppose this movie is trying to point out the differences between them and even goes as far as to say they are racist against their own heritage. It is a little hard to explain but I understood the movie completely.

This was titled "Dude, Where's The Party?" at the video store and billed as a comedy. After just coming off of watching Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle, I figured this was a "can't miss" movie. While it was not too terrible, it was nowhere near as funny as Harold & Kumar (with the exception of maybe one scene). I kind of got the picture they were trying to capitalize on Kal's Harold & Kumar fame by releasing this movie afterward, even though it was made before and the box cover could be misconstrued as well.

Also, some of the actors are in need of acting classes or something. Most of the smaller parts I guess. I did not think the women were all that beautiful either, with the exception of Mousami Dave, who plays Poonam Mehta. Mousami was by far the hottest girl in the movie. With all things considered, I rate this in the middle and would honestly recommend to pass on this film. 5/10

A very funny movie. All politics aside, fob, abcd, Indian Ameican, these are obviously hot bed issues that stike a chord in each viewer making it impossible for them to watch the movie in its on immensely well crafted, fun, colorful, and musical environment. Practically ten minutes of this film is a man splashing around in a tub, not being Indian, or American but simply being a grown hairy man getting as much fun out of a tub full of water and not taking sides in the epic battle between the new and old groups of Indians ( it would seem from reading some of the pathetic reviews in this collection of reviews the the battle is epic) It seems that this was a topic the filmmakers probably did not think would be so emotional.

But once again so much of this movie doesn't really even play into that debate and really just attempts to create some fun and silly moments, like Kal's dance for Janvi. When its does take a stand and get on its soapbox it does it in such a clever way that the Shalllow Indians, who feel the film pokes fun at them, watch the movie don't even notice the scene where PRYIA in JANVI's documentary, reveal the filmmakers true feelings about the whole "Can Indians get along debate." In this scene it seems like PRYIA really does have a mind and she realizes that the struggle Indians have now is nothing compared to the Civil Rights Struggle in the US only 40 some years ago --she admits, and the filmmakers through her, that the battle for who is the coolest is not important when one thinks of the struggles of minorities in this country in the past and all the people who have cleared the way for "PRYIA" to worry about how she may be seen as a freak for the color of her eye-shadow and not the color of her skin. It also shows that some of the worst hatred in minority groups exist within the group itself as those who adapt and adopt the culture of the new environment immediately pick on members of their own group who do not fit in. But these are heavy issues and to attempt them in a comedy is bold and i think the filmmakers succeed in showing how this happens and DO NOT TAKE THE SIDE of the person who picks on members of his/her own group, --that is why the club owner is, in the end, exposed as THE BAD GUY. In fact --he is really the only bad guy in the movie. the guy who owns the club and throws the parties but does not want any "real" Indians to show up is the one everyone can agree is the "loser." But when it is not smartly dealing with these heavy topics , the film is a very silly and funny movie that cracked me up.

Kermit the Frog once said "it's not easy being green", from the endless growing up Indian movies lately, it's not easy being brown either. There have so many of these "growing up brown in America" movies in the last decade, mostly low budget flicks that don't get a whole lot of press. The premise has nearly been run into the ground, traditional over bearing parents that are always in the wrong, rebellious kids who want to fit and date like everyone else and always in the right. One thing these movies have taught us for certain is this, if you're brown and growing up in America, you have a harder time assimilating into the mass culture then lighter skinned people. We've been told this over and over and it really does get tired. For young Indian Americans these films may perhaps be of deep cultural significance, loaded with in jokes that non-Indians may not get.

For much of white America, they will strip the film down to it's basics and call it a "country mouse meeting city mouse" story and think "meh, what's the big deal?" Probably gutting the Indian Americans who think they struck comic gold showing off the cool Indians vs. the over exaggerated fresh off the boat (FOB) immigrant Indians. This story is going to simply come across as a country kid moving to the big city to mainstream America, only with East Indians in it, and they will likely miss the deep rooted angst and confusion that Indians want to convey. The movie shows the Indian Americans as self assured, cool and all around well adjusted while the immigrated FOB Indians are socially clueless. Nevermind that the character of Hari as presented in this film would probably be considered a moron even in India, the filmmakers know they have to make Hari that silly of an FOB Indian to justify his mistreatment by the Indian Americans. To make more of the desired impact that the Indian American culture so desperately seems to want to make with mainstream film goers, a more concrete and weighted story has to be delivered with far more sincere actors. It would be interesting to hear what real people in India think of this film, as about 1 billion people are being derided and made out as ridiculous caricatures. Of course a braver movie would show regular Indian Americans mistreating and not including normal behaved and decently dressed immigrant Indians in their social activities for the sole reason of their own xenophobia and insecurities...but that would be hitting too close to reality and I doubt any writer/director would be that brave.

Well i got this movie in a big outside sale of a video club, cost 3$ so why not? After all it got Kal Penn, and yes its my own fault for buying something because i recognize the main star from a movie i like. Kal Penn mostly famous for the Harold & Kumar franchise play here one of the main character in this pre-Harold & Kumar movie. Kinda weird is that the other main character is name Hari Kumar Patel or something like that, which is the name of Kal Penn's character in Harold & Kumar. Anyway, this movie is rated G in Quebec which mean General Public, and therefore it was expected that there would not be raunchy stuff even tough Kal Penn hold panties on the front cover.

Some of the ideas where good, and the movie had a little something that didn't made it "bad" but it definitely need for laughing moments. Its one of those movie where it should be funny, but its not really and the best you can get out of it are a few smiles and maybe a chuckle or two. The main character is socially awkward coming from India and being very traditional and its mostly from him that the smiles come from. Kal Penn do very OK with the material he is offered but there was only one scene that more or less amused me.

This movie like many others enter the "cute comedy" category and i think when i was 10 or 12 i would had a lot of fun watching it, for that period of time, but in today's standard, it felt short.

I will admit the hard accents also made it hard for me to follow everything properly, as English ain't my first language in the first place. And i usually don't mind too much a comic relief side character with accent, having to follow an entire movie like this is kinda difficult. The movie is also full of India's music which where very annoying at time.

I think my biggest grudge against the movie is that with a title like "Dude, Where's the party" (probably cashing in on Dude, Where's my car) i was expecting a wild ride of a night movie, in the vain of "21 and over" only a bit softer. If you prefer take Ferris Bueller's day off as a better example in that rating category.

Anyway like i said, unlike some people if a movie does not amuse me that much but i still finish it and feel like "yah well OK" i will give it a 5 and say its OK, just not as good as i had hope for, but not that bad either. I remember Balls and Chain with the same Kal Penn which was not as good as i had hope for, but a bit better than this if my memory serve me well. In any case, i think outside the Harold and Kumar franchise and Van Wilder movies, there is nothing memorable from Kal Penn in term of comedy. Well Bachelor Party Vegas was nice thinking about it... not awesome but nice.

If you liked Harold & Kumar, then you may find this movie funny. However, it is not a movie centered around drugs like the afore-mentioned was. There is a weed scene in Where's the Party, but nothing on the scale of Harold & Kumar.

Basically there are 2 general groups of people that will find this particularly funny: 1) Kal Penn fans.

2) Anyone who finds racial stereotypes funny.

As a whole, this movie had some pretty funny moments in it. However, it big time paled in comparison to Harold & Kumar go to Whitecastle.

If you fall into one of the two categories above, check this movie out. If not, you'll probably want to skip this movie and pick something else instead.