Chitter-chatter, a chirpy girl, bicker-bicker, weep and hug: Umesh Shukla’s All Is Well is littered with talking and histrionics. Almost to make up for everyone else talking a lot, but saying very little, is the near silent Supriya Pathak. Pathak is Pammi, the heartbroken mother pining for her estranged son, Inder (Abhishek Bachchan). Inder left his small town life and selfish father (Rishi Kapoor) to chase a bigger ambition of becoming a musician by relocating to Bangkok. But this plan does not come up trumps either.
So, when moneylender and local goon Cheema (Mohammed Zeeshan Ayub) calls Inder back to India to sign over his half of the family bakery to him, Inder returns after 10 years lured by his share of Bhajanlal Bhalla’s bakery. Back in Kasol, he finds that his father is steeped in debt, Cheema has no intentions of paying him a penny and that his mother is an invalid. Tagging along with Inder, like excess baggage is Nimmi (Asin), who even on the eve of her arranged marriage is harbouring hope that Inder will propose to her. Her optimism comes from the bestseller The Secret, which she clutches onto, making you wonder whether the writers were deeply influenced by this book or are they mocking it.
When Inder discovers that his mother has invested in gold and that the jewels can help pay off the debt, the family and Nimmi (who is in no hurry to get to her own family) drive around Himachal Pradesh to find these jewels. Cheema is hot on their heels, yet the Bhallas stop at a dhaba and Inder gets a chance to enjoy an item number with Sonakshi Sinha. Then they reach Nimmi’s home, ostensibly to drop her off. All the while Cheema is getting closer.
This is just one instance of the inanity in the script. All is Well is a catalogue of incomprehensible situations such as a bug-toothed aunt with her body-building brood whose youngest son is constantly sucking on an orange iced lolly.
Rishi Kapoor repeats his Punjabi paternal act, and Abhishek Bachchan continues to make questionable choices with a film that could not even have sounded good on paper (Umesh Shukla, Sumit Arora, Niren Bhatt). He saunters through the film and, like Kapoor, pulls out no surprises. The production is tacky at times and the jokes and situations, reminiscent of Priyadarshan comedies of the 1990s, fall flat. The scenery and terrain change arbitrarily. It’s a poorly presented film by Umesh Shukla after the thought-provoking Oh My God.
All is Well ends with lessons on respecting elders, treating patients with Alzheimer’s and reading the right books!
