Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein (2012) Movie Review

For a film which advises people to not take life too seriously and to stop to smell roses on the way, Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein itself seems to have been determined to not let the audience have a good time. The film, which stars Sachin Khedekar and Anupam Kher, is as preachy and boring as it gets.
 Aditya Pradhan (Sachin Khedekar) is a top-notch IT professional with a wife and daughter but no time for either of them as he is too busy either tapping away at his laptop-even when having his breakfast or barking instructions to his subordinates. Needless to say, Pradhan ends up missing to attend all the important events in the lives of his family members and is given the cold shoulder by the scorned women, who leave the house to stay with Pradhan's wife's family.
 Things take a turn for the worse when Pradhan spends a lonely Sunday by himself and wakes up the next day to see that the day has been repeated and the same things that happened a day ago are being repeated. Though Pradhan is disturbed by this turn of events, he is convinced by his friend Mohan (Atul Parchure) that he needs rest and that such things are happening solely because of work stress. The protagonist reluctantly accepts this explanation and retires for the night, only to wake up the next day and discover that it is still a Sunday.
 The search for the answers of this baffling mystery leads him to the door step of an anonymous visually impaired stranger (Anupam Kher) and how the latter manages to make Pradhan see the light of the day and enjoy every moment of life forms the rest of the plot.
 At the very outset, though Khedekar managed to perform quite effectively, his bad hairpiece makes him look unintentionally comical. If that was not enough, seeing a fine actor like Anupam Kher behave like a juvenile and guffaw and clap his hands like a retard at every situation is sure to put you off. The supporting cast though does manage to hold its own, from actors like Mrinal Kulkarni to Vijay Patkar to Anjan Shrivastav to Atul Parchure.
 However, the lack of a powerful script and too much of preachy dialogues, which seem to hammer home the same point again and again with irritating regularity, is enough to make one groan in agony. (I mean, seriously…this guy doesn't really deserve to go through so much distress just because he is a workaholic, eh? A peaceful weekend getaway might have achieved the same results, for all you know…)
 All in all, being a workaholic on the weekend is a better idea than taking the time out to watch Chhodo Kal Ki Baatein