A Million Dollar FAKE!
Tere Bin Laden, starring, Prince of Pop, Ali Zafar has garnered generally positive reviews all over the world. The film earned $20,000 on Thursday night in Dubai, and it has become a smash hit in Dubai and in Mumbai, India. So Muslims and Pakistanis abroad love it, and did not find anything offensive in it. It’s a comedy film and it caters to the general psyche of the society. Banning the screening of the film in Pakistan on grounds that extremists could use it as a pretext to launch attacks, made every Pakistani sad and also excited to look for the illegal pirated version of it over the internet. Luckily I found the version within the next 24 hours of the release of the film and thankfully it has been shot quite nicely by the unknown director (pirate) sitting inside the cinema. Throughout the film I never felt that its an anti-Pakistan film. Its a pro-Pakistani film and being a Pakistani I thoroughly enjoyed the film and would highly recommend people to watch this rare gem in theaters. So here goes the first Pakistani review.Tere Bin Laden is not your typical Bollywood film. It tells the tale of a person who fools the entire world, especially the most important country-US just to fulfill his dream. It is a satire but not the average run-of-the-mill kind. It is a spoof on America and its war on terror. Even with name of Osama Bin Laden in the film, yet there is not a single serious moment in the entire film. It is abound with funny sequences from start to finish. It perhaps will even make Osama laugh if he ever gets to see it or, may be he’ll hire Pradhuman Singh (Fake Osama) as his double.
Plot:
TERE BIN LADEN is a tongue-in-cheek comedy and its story revolves around a Karachi-based Pakistani ambitious young reporter Ali Hasan (Ali Zafar), who works in a small TV news channel ‘Danka TV’, which is run by Majeed Khan (Piyush Mishra). Ali is desperate to migrate to the U.S. in pursuit of the American dream. His repeated attempts to immigrate are shot down as his visa is always rejected because of the 9/11 backdrop and heightened security threats. He realises that the only way to get on a plane to America is with a fake passport but since that costs big bucks, he then plans to get the money by hook or crook. Majeed Khan, the Danka TV owner fines his employees and collects the money in a piggy bank. Even the local travel agent who runs a Company called Laskar-e-Amreeka is hilarious to the core. Now, Majeed sends Ali and Gul (Ali’s assistant) on a punishing assignment to cover a rooster crowing competition. While playing the competition tape in the studio, Ali finds Noora (Pradhuman Singh), a proud poultry breeder and egg producer, an Osama lookalike and hunts him down to hatch a plot for fulfilling his American dream. Then, the rest is history, better watched and enjoyed yourself how Ali and Gul find accomplices to do the make-up Zoya (Sugandha Garg), write the dialogues Lateef, the tormented colleague, the voice of radio jockey Qureshi to produce the fake Osama tape to achieve fame and glory and sell his interview as a breakthrough scoop to the international media.
Unfortunately there are serious ramifications as the White House gets involved and dispatches a overzealous secret agent Ted (Barry John) on Ali’s trial. But he doesn’t foresee the consequences of his act, which include US bombing Iraq among other things. Disturbed by the impact of his act, he wants to come clean. But that will foil his plan to go to America. So he comes up with another plan, which leads to further confusion.
Unfortunately there are serious ramifications as the White House gets involved and dispatches a overzealous secret agent Ted (Barry John) on Ali’s trial. But he doesn’t foresee the consequences of his act, which include US bombing Iraq among other things. Disturbed by the impact of his act, he wants to come clean. But that will foil his plan to go to America. So he comes up with another plan, which leads to further confusion.The film begins with a not so funny start but nevertheless it sets the mood. The film gets on track when Ali discovers the Osama lookalike and from here the film is an excellent joy-ride. The whole second half is full of action and you will never get bored of it. There are many sequences in the film which will make you laugh out laud. One being the recording session with the fake Osama, which was just brilliant, another one in which Ali’s Danka TV boss Majeed Khan falls in the man-hole and lands straight into the interrogation and the one where the grenade gets stuck on fake Osama’s hand.
The film has outrageously funny sequences and has enough punch lines which makes you laugh out loud till the very end of the film. The humour of TBL is not of a film level and especially not slapstick/vulgar comedy as in most of the Indian comedy films but it is way different and better than most of the satires we see these days. The music by Shankar-Ehsan-Loy is just okay and easily forgettable except for ‘Ullu Da Pattha’ which suites with the mood of the film. The script penned by the first time writer-director Abhishek Sharma is smart, witty and will surely put a smile on your face till the final sequence of the film. The characters are very well-written and every actor has given a charming performance especially by the fake Osama and Ali Zafar. The fake Osama who looks exactly like the original and is really witty in the whole film. His act of Osama was of course out of this world. He was the central part of the film but Ali was equally good. 
He with his sheer good looks and with considerable screen presence was confident and his comic timing was excellent and sparkled in the embrace of the script’s feisty wit. TBL would have lost in the jungle of Bollywood films but was frankly saved by Ali Zafar’s star power here in Pakistan because of whom people were eager to watch this film. The film is technically weak and looks amateurish as it is shot poorly by the first time director, Abhishek Sharma on a moderate budget of $2million USD. Another funny thing about the film is that it is actually shot in India but the way the first time director has shot it is really commendably. He has recreated Karachi, Pakistan in Hyderabad, India and being a Pakistani myself, throughout the film, I never felt that it wasn’t Pakistan or a Pakistani thing except for the Zoya chick. She was not at all like a Pakistani make-up artist and was a little vulgar.
He with his sheer good looks and with considerable screen presence was confident and his comic timing was excellent and sparkled in the embrace of the script’s feisty wit. TBL would have lost in the jungle of Bollywood films but was frankly saved by Ali Zafar’s star power here in Pakistan because of whom people were eager to watch this film. The film is technically weak and looks amateurish as it is shot poorly by the first time director, Abhishek Sharma on a moderate budget of $2million USD. Another funny thing about the film is that it is actually shot in India but the way the first time director has shot it is really commendably. He has recreated Karachi, Pakistan in Hyderabad, India and being a Pakistani myself, throughout the film, I never felt that it wasn’t Pakistan or a Pakistani thing except for the Zoya chick. She was not at all like a Pakistani make-up artist and was a little vulgar.The film mostly scores by the watertight innovative script, witty dialogues and the commendably performances by the star cast. TBL proves that content is king. Dialogues are biting! The whole film is quite unique as it shows fun-with-the-mr-gun (Osama and comedy o_O huh!) but the ending of it is even more unexpected from a film featuring Osama and is really very funny. It concludes with a very strong and funny message of peace and the war on terror ends. The film manages to grab your attention effortlessly till the very end.
Verdict:
Tere Bin Laden is 90 minutes, no song-and-dance, no cliches but loads of fun and pure entertainer. This is a rare gem of a movie to have hit the theaters in a long, long time. Finding another one could be as difficult as hunting for the real Osama. Though the film suffers mainly because of the budgetary constraints but undoubtedly it is the best comedy film I have seen in recent times with an original and a witty script and performances by the star cast. Its not a classic comedy but its a complete joy-ride. Must Watch!
Overall Rating: * * * *
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