Whatever might have worked against Andaz Apna Apna when it first came out in 1994 – the slapstick humour, the bewildering array of characters, the continuity breaks because of a prolonged three-year-long production schedule – are precisely the reasons the film has endured. Rajkumar Santoshi’s cheerfully anarchic Hindi movie has been re-released in cinemas, providing occasion for nostalgia as well as discovery.
In Andaz Apna Apna, the joke is on the grumpy and the literal-minded. The film takes itself seriously only insofar as it wants viewers to forget about their worries and split their sides over 154 minutes of unfettered silliness.
Santoshi wrote the screenplay and collaborated on the rat-a-tat dialogue with Dilip Shukla. Andaz Apna Apna stars Aamir Khan and Salman Khan during their ascent to the stratosphere alongside a minor army of actors adept at crackpottery.
The plot is out of a brightly coloured cartoon strip. Amar (Aamir Khan) and Prem (Salman Khan) are a pair of good-for-nothings with attitude to spare. Amar is supremely confident of his ability to get out of hot messes that are entirely the result of his doing. Prem too is the type to rush in where angels fear to tread.
Both men are fearlessly dim-witted, to the despair of their fathers. Both woo Raveena (Raveena Tandon), the daughter of the millionaire Ram Gopal Bajaj (Paresh Rawal). The character’s name, like nearly everything else in the movie, is presumably an in-joke about the actual theatre luminary from the National School of Drama.
Unfortunately for Amar and Prem, somebody else is targeting Raveena – Ram Gopal’s twin brother Teja. There’s a lot of chasing and pursuing in a film that never lets up.
Raveena’s secretary Karishma (Karisma Kapoor) falls for Prem. Teja hires Robert (Viju Khote) and Bhalla (Shehzad Khan) to kill Raveena. The caped gangster Crime Master Gogo (Shakti Kapoor) is in hot pursuit of Teja. All of them land up together in an extended climax lifted from the 1972 film Victoria No 203.
Spoofs about older Hindi movies abound, from colourfully named villains to the sudden shift to songs. Tushar Bhatia’s soundtrack is a throwback to ditties from the ’60s and ’70s, particularly by OP Nayyar. There are cameos by veterans Deven Verma, Mehmood and Jagdeep. But Andaz Apna Apna rarely labours its references.
The madcap dialogue, much of which has become part of film lore, elevates some of the more ordinary scenes. Despite continuity jerks – most visible in Salman Khan’s changing hairstyles and physique – editor VN Mayekar admirably maintains unity amidst escalating chaos.
There’s consistency in the performances too. Rajkumar Santoshi’s command is especially felt in his handling of his actors.
Fans who despair over Salman Khan’s current form might be pleasantly shocked to see what he was once capable of, when he deigned to pay attention. Aamir Khan is in brilliant form, nailing Amar’s foolishness and pomposity. Aamir Khan’s talent for rattling off lines at breakneck speed and quickly seizing control of a situation peaks in the iconic “Ya jhakaas, shabaash mere cheeteh!” moment.
Andaz Apna Apna inspired several other movies, notably Rohit Shetty’s Golmaal series, but few have matched its relentless pace, anything-goes quality, or good-natured humour. In the process of sending up Hindi film conventions, Rajkumar Santoshi created a fresh idiom of comedy that follows no rules except the one that says that we must laugh ourselves silly. And we do.
