Movie Review: ‘Tere Bin Laden Dead or Alive’ is a Massive Letdown

Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive is a disappointment after the first instalment, which was comedy gold.

If a pizza isn’t delivered in half an hour we get our money back. Shouldn’t the same rule apply to movies that can’t deliver a proper joke on time?

This week’s new release Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive is more dead than alive. Now the reason why we are even talking about it and are reasonably excited to watch it is because Tere Bin Laden (2010) was hilarious. With the same writer and director, Abhishek Sharma at the helm of affairs how wrong could it be? Turns out, very!

For starters, the film takes forever to establish its context and maintain continuity with its predecessor. And during this whole period, there isn’t a single joke to babysit us with. So, we have Ali Zafar and his swag making an appearance. He soon gives way to Manish Paul who plays a halwai ka beta. When given a choice between making jalebis or a twisted film, he chooses the latter. (Still no laughs!) Somewhere in between he meets Paddi Singh, the same Osama look alike who had us rolling with laughter in his previous outing (now, just a couple of chuckles). There are plans to make a second film but the real Osama dies and life is in jeopardy and the film still not funny!

Things finally take a turn for the better with Sikander Kher and his Jim Carrie inspired American CIA agent act. Piyush Mishra, his voice intonations and crazy wigs also joins the party. Everything from Obama’s “Yes we can” to trigger happy jihadis and their jannat retirement plans are spoofed with some top quality writing and super funny puns. The terrorists are shown participating in Olympia-e-dehshat and “bomb relay,” while Americans want proof that they have actually killed Osama. Right before the interval, we get a glimpse of the same brand of intelligent humor that made us a fan of Tere Bin Laden, but it’s all downhill from there.

The funny jokes are repeated so often that they lose their charm and what we end up with is a film where jokes keep buffering.

Manish Paul tries hard, a tad too hard. Burdened with stale one liners and his enthusiasm to please everyone, he ends up over emoting. Pradhuman Singh suffers, thanks to bad writing. Seasoned actor Piyush Mishra, sadly, isn’t remarkable in this one. Sikander Kher is the only one who is consistently watchable.

Tere Bin Laden: Dead or Alive doesn’t have much going for it except its duration. It’s just an hour and forty minutes long. If you are bored out of your wits, you could toy with the idea of being bored with a box of popcorn for company. I’ll only give it 1 and a half Quints out of 5. This one isn’t even close to the magic that Tere Bin Laden was.

Watch:
Actors Manish Paul and Sikandar Kher Kiss During a Film Promotion