Meri Dad Ki Maruti

Starring 
Saqib Saleem 
Rhea Chakraborty 
Ram Kapoor 
Prabal Panjabi 

I’ve got a pretty active imagination and a very ticklish funny bone, so a Bollywood comedy is always welcomed. American humor and Indian humor are very different. Right now, what is big in America hasn’t really caught on in India…yet. The closest Bollywood comedy that parallels our penchant for uncomfortable situations and all out crass humor was Delhi Belly. I’ll leave that commentary for its own separate review. 
Meri Dad Ki Maruti simply translates to “My Dads Maruti” or more easily understood “My Dads car” They stress the type if car because in India, Maruti (Suzuki over here in the states) is a pretty sought after car. I would compare it to maybe a Lexus.
Anyway, the plot is actually very simple: Middle class loafer type kid wants to show off to an airhead hot girl on his college campus. His perfect opportunity to bag this bodaciously hot babe is to impress her with a brand new red hot maruti Irdiga, fully loaded and ready to roll. However it’s not meant to roll for him as it was bought for his sister as a wedding present, but we know how it goes. He sneaks it out of the locked garage 3 days before the wedding to take Jazzleen (Rhea Chakraborty) out on a date. The car gets “stolen” while being valet parked and the madness ensues. 

Newcomer and leading guy Saqib Saleem does a pretty fair job of acting but nothing, really, to write home about. His looks, of course, are above subpar because, just like Hollywood, sex sells and talent comes after. A model himself, Saleem is tall and handsome and of course he has a completely toned and hairless chest (yeah, that’s natural!) so it’s only fitting that he was picked.
For me, the real star of this wasn’t Saqib Saleem or his equally sexy, yet moderately talented, love interest Rhea Chakraborty, it's actually the best friend character played by Prabal Panjabi. He is not a model (actually he’s quite short (5’ 8”??) but his performance made the film that more funny. Great facial expressions and he really made me laugh.

The best part of the movie to me was the scene where his sister puts on this sexy dance for her fiancé and, boy, is the dance NSFW. Actually it’s not suitable for anyone with eyes! Its hilariously over the top sexual inuendos and quirky gyrations poke fun at traditional bollywood dance scenes.

Lighthearted fun that had a somewhat predictable ending. If you’ve got some free time then give it a shot but not a movie that you need to put in your Netflix queue anytime soon.

Article by the Diner's very own Bollywood reporter Kiva Ashby