Movies and posts on this blog

Latest on Masala Punch

Friday, October 3, 2008

The paratha conspiracy: Mujhse Dosti Karoge (2002)

A movie about email-pals? A story of true-love being above beauty? A love triangle? WRONG. In case none of you have caught on to it, the movie reveals a chilling international conspiracy to steal the process and exploitation rights of gobhi-ka-paratha (a cauliflower-stuffed Indian bread, hereafter referred to as g-k-p).
Gobhi ke parathe (image taken from this blog which also has the recipe for the parathe!)
The Brits left India (in 1947, after 200 years of misrule) with but one regret. In all their years in India, they could never pry the ancient recipe of g-k-p from the natives. Nearly 60 years later they decided to adopt a novel strategy to finally achieve their ambition. For the mission they recruited a gora - Raj (Hrithik Roshan)- who could pass as an Indian.



He was given intense training in London before he was let loose in India.
His mission in India: To get the secret recipe from the keeper of the g-k-p scrolls - a lovely Indian lady who goes by the name of Tina (Kareena Kapoor).
Raj, a self-confident young man, thinks the assignment is a piece of cake. He can sing and dance better than most Bollywood heroes and has more charm in his third thumb than anybody else has in his whole body. He is so hot that everything (even telephone booths) fall like nine-pins at the mere sight of him.
Raj arrives in India eager to begin his mission. He makes contact with Tina only to find out that Tina never does anything without her bosom-pal Puja (Rani Mukherjee).
Operation-charm-Tina is under way at once and Raj enjoys considerable success.
Puja, is somewhat suspicious.
But, Raj wins her over with his friendly overtures.
Just when Raj can smell the sweet smell of parathas, he finds out the Shocking Truth. His briefing in London was WRONG! Tina is not the one who holds the key to g-k-p - Puja does!!!
He tries to make-up for his blunder and rescue his mission by romancing Puja instead.
In this however, he comes against an obstacle in the guise of Puja’s admirer Rohan (Uday Chopra).
But Raj isnt one to give in so easily. He tries dazzling her with his hot good looks.
He comes over all SRK and drenches Puja with the force of his passion.
Puja is moved by his passion (for g-k-p) but is still unwilling to part with the ancient recipe.
So, while poor Raj is in the land where the sun never sets on g-k-p,
and Puja brings him g-k-ps everyday, the all-important recipe still eludes Raj.
Will Raj be able to successfully complete his mission? Will he manage to bring the elusive recipe to the rest of the world? If you want to find out, you need to go watch Mujhse Dosti Karoge. I’m off to make some crispy, yummy parathas of my own!

27 comments:

  1. I finally understood what the film was about, thanks to you. I'm hungry now.

    ReplyDelete
  2. i don't know why but i love this movie! its just sooo stupidly fun and its got hritik in the rain, and uday chopra and his receding hairline!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Banno, it took me a while to figure out the paratha angle and now that I have, I want my share of the global Gobhi ke parathe!

    Rum, I like this movie too! There is so much eye candy and good songs that I dont resent Hrithik's super human efforts at emoting - his nostrils flare and his eyes and veins pop-out through sheer hard-work! Kareena is cute inspite of her pouting and this is the only movie where I liked Uday Chopra (OK no, I liked him in Dhoom too.). But the sheer amount of Gobhi ke parathe present here make me hungry! lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Very aptly put! :> There was indeed a lot of g-k-p here, do you have any favorite g-k-p moment? I think mine was when Raj meets Puja in the church and then using the g-p-k clue knows it was she who was e-mailing him!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I love this film, it's one of the first ones I ever saw.

    :-) And I love parathas too, although I prefer aloo ones.

    ReplyDelete
  6. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Ruchi, that certainly was one great g-k-p moment. My favorite was the one where he makes the g-k-p himself and feeds her - I was drooling so badly (over g-k-p, ofcourse) that I needed a snack myself!

    Memsaab, I love this movie and parathas too! And gobhi paratha is one of my favorites (along with paneer and cheese parathas) - thats one thing Raj and I have in common. ;-)

    theBollywoodFan, I can have parathas anytime anywhere even without the complements you mentioned! :-) Geez... all this talk of food is making me very very hungry!

    "I saw this movie when it was released, and nothing really stood out."

    All that fair and lovely cheese and it still didnt strike you as an outstanding movie? You are demanding! lol

    ReplyDelete
  8. OMG, freaking hilarious post and observation. :)

    Movie was nothing special. It has its moments. Just nothing spectacular. It reminded me of the Hollywood movie, The Truth About Cats and Dogs.

    ReplyDelete
  9. sorry, this comment has nothing to do with this movie. Saw that over in Filmi Girl's review of Anamika you said that "Bahon Mein chale aa" was your favourite Asha number: just being picky and to set the record straight, that is a Lata song all the way!
    But i like reading your posts, saves me having to watch many a bad film and yet still be in the know!

    ReplyDelete
  10. OMG, this is freaking awesome. You have a career in espionage ahead of you! LOL D'you know, what I always found weird (besides the "Magic Sindoor Attacks!" moment) was that *Rani* was supposed to be the "plain" friend. WTF?

    ReplyDelete
  11. Nicki, I think the movie was inspired by The Truth About Cats and Dogs. And I'm glad you enjoyed my post! *faux-modest blushing under way*

    bawa, thanks for stopping by. Reading blog reviews is a great way of keeping track of movies without watching them! Are you a big fan of oldies, too?

    You're absolutely right - Baahon mein chale aao is sung by Lata. Cant believe I forgot that when writing on Filmi Girl's post. I must have been thinking of Kaahe ko rootha deewaana mera which is an Asha number in the same film! :-)

    ajnabi, thank you. *more faux-modest blushes*

    I do love conspiracy theories. They are so much more interesting than real-life! :-) And I totally agree with your point about Rani. Wouldnt call Rani plain in the least! They should have de-glamorised and made her up appropriately if the intention really was to make look her plain!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Brilliant- you have unerringly zeroed upon the best part of the movie! Now I know who the real star was :D

    ReplyDelete
  13. yes, I am a great fan of old movies, and not to keen on some of the later stuff (for me that is late 70s-80s-90s). However, thanks to your blog, I can pretend to be really up to date on everything under the mumbai sun.

    I like all songs in Anamika, starting from Kishore's title track. He does suit SK so with lots of subtleties in his singing voice, like SK in his acting.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Shweta, I wonder why Raj ignored the superior claims of Sarson-ka-saag and Makke-ki-roti (not to mention Gajar-ka-halwa) which is the usual Bollywood staple of Punjab!

    Bawa, its always great to find new fans of oldies! Whats your favorite decade?

    Anamika songs are awesome, especially the Meri bheegi bheegi si number that you mention. 70s was certainly Kishore Kumar's decade! Sanjeev Kumar was so good in the film. Wonder why he took to horizontal expansion so early into his career.

    ReplyDelete
  15. LOL what a hilarious post...I just did a review of this movie but I so prefer your review...and this secret eluded me even though I have seen this movie numerous times...thanks for sharing the SECRET :-)

    ReplyDelete
  16. You are welcome, Reviewer. Cant believe it took me 3-4 re-watches to fathom the deep-dark SECRET!

    ReplyDelete
  17. "Please go away.. I'm allergic to your cologne" had me go ROFL but that's the second saddest scene in the film so I shouldn't be laughing at that. I Rum said, I too simply L-O-V-E this movie. Btw, I also like Uday C in this one quite a lot, actually I think this is my favorite movie of him. :) And my fav g-k-p scene would have to be the one near the end, when "pyaar hua iqraar hua" plays in background. I won't tell you how many times I've watch this one, because I've lost the count now. :D

    ReplyDelete
  18. It is a cute movie and I love it too, except that these days I find myself laughing at all the serius moments! But Hrithik and Rani look so good - wonder why they have no other movies together.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Oh my god..the captions are priceless
    That was super duper funny..ROFWL
    especially-When did u start using Fand L(I luv Hrithik's overthetop fierce expression-It so goes with ur G-K-P moment)
    And Were still good frens arent we?

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thanks, B! It's one of my favorite Hrithik movies and I had fun hunting for gobhi ke parathe clues! :-)

    ReplyDelete
  21. This was my first Bollywood movie and I adore it. I think it gets kind of an unfairly bad rap - it's no more fluffy or silly than most other movies.

    I too am impressed at your A1 sleuthing skills! I wonder if you can find the G-K-P-related meaning of my favorite part of this film: Tina's repeated catch phrase "Leave it to Tina!" (and associated gesture)? I actually do say this a fair amount and do the head-toss and dismissive hand flip, but most people do not know what I'm talking about.

    ReplyDelete
  22. True, its no more cheesy than other movies. Didnt realise it had a bad rep for cheesiness. Anyhow, give me Hrithik+Rani+Kareena and I can happily overlook any flaws! :-D

    As to "Leave it to Tina" - it was her confident assertion that misled MI6 (or do I mean MI5?) into thinking she held the g-k-p secret. I havent yet figured out whether it was a meaningless gesture on her part or a well thought-out strategy to mislead. More re-watches are under way to resolve the issue.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Absolutely delightful write up on the g-k-p angle. Now I have decided to make g-k-p on christmas day! Your one line captions are priceless!

    Like all the others, I love this movie. Wonder why it flopped and why it gets bad press.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thanks, Filmbuff!

    I guess the movie flopped because Hrithik ke taare gardish mein the. ;-) There can be no other explanation!

    ReplyDelete
  25. So true with ur GPK angle ; i acually went and learned the recipe and "they" made us very hungry while watching the film;too bad kunal kohli didnt take a patent for GPK...
    I Loved the whole movie except the climax part was too bad; i mean the sindoor thingy.
    Rest its good in Mills and boon type of way; brings my adolescene out again i guess...

    ReplyDelete
  26. Aah Mills&Boon! So that is why I loved this so much? And here I was thinking it was all because of fair-n-lovely Hrithik and Rani-Kareena! :D

    ReplyDelete
  27. The length to which the goras will go to for Indian khana...obviously dissatisfied with the bakwas "curry powder" they obtained from their bawarchis on the eve of their departure in 1947, their spies are now amongst us... note that it is not only "Indian" Hrithik, but also "Indian" Kareena who did not know the recipe...the two are obviously goras, the fair and lovely cream is unnecessary for them, but used as an explanation...thankfully desi Uday keeps them off track with his shaadi plans to recipe gatekeeper Rani, leading to an "epic" shadi tamasha, whereby gora hero marries Rani in an ultimate effort to obtain the recipe - even the Gods side with him! Nahiiin!

    ReplyDelete