Why the leading men of 'Chashme Baddoor' make better standup comedians than actors

New Delhi: If you keep aside the fact that David Dhawan dared to remake a film that is considered a cult classic, 'Chashme Baddoor' can manage to tickle your funny bone.

While the maker completely rips of the innocence that was associated to the original film and infuses slapstick humour in huge dollops- the three lead actors- Ali Zafar, Divyendu Sharma and Siddharth manage to make you laugh and cringe at the same time.

So we had Divyendu Sharma playing Omi - a role that was perfected by Rakesh Bedi in the original, Siddharth repirsing Ravi Baswani's Jai and Ali zafar playing the good boy Siddharth, played by Farooq Shaikh in the original. While Zafar's character did not demand too much of theatrics, it is Sharma and Siddharth who surprised us all with their 'kamina' act.

With sound background in theatre and a degree in acting from FTII, Divyendu had already made everyone sit up and notice him in his first film 'Pyaar Ka Punchnama'. The earnestness with which Sharma had played the shy boy in love with his boss made everyone connect with him. Stark contrast to his portrayal of Liquid in PKP is the character Omi- a typical good for nothing fella' who makes shayari out of the most mundane things in day to day life. A relative newcomer amongst the cast of 'Chashme Baddoor ', Sharma surprisingly managed to make his presence felt with his over the top and dare-i- say cheap shayari.

The surprise package of the film is clearly actor Siddharth who makes an intentional shift from the kind of roles he has done in the past in Bollywood to play aspiring actor Jai. The first scene of the film where Siddharth pretends to rape a woman during a film's audition and goes over the top so much so that the heroine calls for help might make Siddharth loyalists cringe a bit. Simply because, the man who has done some really interesting roles in films like 'Boys', 'Rang De Basanti' and 'Striker' doesn't really go with the womaniser Jai's character. And that's perhaps why his performance stands out. In his mauve ganjis and bright pink boxers, Siddharth looks comfortable as the aspiring actor with a roving eye. 'Chashme Baddoor' also makes us realise that how the actor can do amazing mimicry of almost all the actors of Indian cinema. From Aamir Khan to Rajinikanth to even Amrish Puri, Siddharth switches to different actors effortlessly in almost all his dialogues and spoofs films and characters.

Both Divyendu and Siddharth have a sound background in theatre and manage to light up the screen even though they aren't the main leads. They are spontaneous and have a perfect comic timing and demand the viewer's attention whenever they are on screen.

And if not for the doing bad films with cheap humour, the two actors with an exceptional comic timing can easily be doing great stand up comedy. They both are a find. And make David Dhawan's otherwise poorly done 'Chashme Baddoor' an almost enjoyable film. Almost.