Cheeni Kum

2007 "A Sugar Free Romance"
6.8| 2h16m| en
Details

Buddhadev Gupta, a 64-year-old chef, falls in love with a 34-year-old software engineer, Nina. However, their future becomes uncertain when he discovers that her father is six years his junior.

Director

Producted By

Eros International

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Reviews

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.
Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.
AutCuddly Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,
Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.
Anish Misra Cheeni Kum is a film written and directed by R. Balki. I had this film in the back-burner for quite some time. So since I had to see something light, I decided to pick up this film. And I am much satisfied with this film.Plot; Buddhadev, a 64 year old Chef in London falls in love with 34 year old, Neena Verma.Story and direction: This is what I would call a love story with a twist. And I would say, although I had my doubts, but I was highly entertained by this twist. The film has quite the beautiful setting. The character of Buddha is quite a one. We see various shades of him which I liked a lot. And the characters we have surrounded around Buddha was also good. A special mention to Colgate and the way he pronounced 'Zafrani Pulao'. Then we have a mother who nags Buddha a lot and his blood cancer suffering neighbor, who is called 'Sexy' (we never get her real name in the entire film, quite an interesting thing). Then we are introduced to Neena which was a well shaped up character. Then we have Neena's father (who also doesn't have a name), which was an OK kind of character to me. Balki did a lot of hard-work on the characterization which is clearly visible in the film. I was hooked to the film in its entire duration which was due to the story. And Balki deserves a lot of credit for that. The structure of the film has been replicated in Ki and Ka (which was quite a poor film, considering Balki's caliber). But the main fault I would say for this film, that if you take off the characters there is nothing unique in the film.Music: Ilaiyaraaja scores the film. Now considering the talent of this maestro, I would say that he did a pretty average job here. Most of the tunes have been of his previous ventures. The title track is OK but not a standout. That also can be said for the other songs in the film too.Performances: Assembling some of the powerhouses of Bollywood, is a thing that highly paid off in this film. Amitabh Bachchan was fantabulous as Buddha. He played all the different shades of his character with ease. He always reminds me why he is considered a legend. Tabu was also great in her role of Neena. Paresh Rawal was also good as Neena's Gandhian father. Zohra Sehgal proved that age is just a number. Same goes for Swini Khara who delivered a fine performance.Favorite Scene: It would be the scene just before the ending of the film where Buddha goes to a pole near Qutab Minar to fulfill one of his wishes and his mother helps him in doing so. After fulfilling a wish something quite bad happens and he goes again to the pole, but in vain. Amitabh Bachchan displayed varied emotions in this scene and the switch was fantastic.Verdict: Although not the best film of Amitabh Bachchan, I would say it's a decent watch. I was highly entertained throughout the film.I am going with an 8/10.
Srinivas G Phani Cheeni Kum boasts of a peculiar tagline 'Sugarfree Romance', the never paired Tabu and Amitabh Bacchan and also Illayaraja's superb music. Cheeni Kum is one of finest works till date with superb performances, good storyline and everything one wants in a perfect entertainer. Comparisons with RGV's Nishabd make no sense at all. That one is completely different.34 year-old Neena Verma (Tabu) meets the 64 year-old short-tempered chef of an Indian Restaurant in London, Spice 6 - Buddha Dev Gupta (Amitabh Bacchan). Love blossoms between them and Buddha travels all the way to Neena's residence in Delhi and asks her father (Paresh Rawal) for his daughter's hand. But there's one problem – Neena's father is just 58, six years younger than Buddha.The story promises lots of laughs, drama and fun. The screenplay is superb. A number of sequences catch your attention in the first half – 1. Zafrani Pulao incident and Amitabh telling sorry to Neena. 2. Neena introducing Jesin as her boyfriend and the birthday party. 3. The relation Amitab shares with his mother. 4. 9 year-old cancer affected neighbor, Sexy's interest for Adult movies and the way she talks like grownups. But the second half of the movie is not as indulging as the first. But still the movie is fine there too – for instance, Buddha looking out for different chances to ask for his daughter's hand. The end is a bit stretched but still, it is perfect. The film could have been edited by at least 15 minutes for better impact. But the situations described in the film are quite hilarious.Coming to the performances – Tabu stands first. She is superb. Her camera presence is bound to be noticed. She teases Amitabh throughout the film and deserves mention for that. She is under the skin of Neena. Despite having a dominant actor as her co-star she makes her presence felt. Amitabh gets a fair chance to prove himself too. He plays the character of 'angry old man' this time. He mainly does well in the final reels. He and Tabu make a good pair. Waiting to see more of them. Zohra Sehgal as Buddha's mother is first-rate. The sequence where she talks with Tabu for the first time is well filmed. Swini Khara as Sexy is equally good. Her expressionless face works. She delivers dialogues with tremendous ease (though I doubt if she actually knew the meaning of what she spoke in the film). Paresh Rawal as Neena's father is too good. He enters in the second-half and dominates it mostly. Paresh Rawal delivers something new in every film and is very true to the work appointed. Other supporting cast is adequate.Debutante director R. Balki shows his expertise in directing. The direction is very good and so is the production design. Cinematography is good. The posh locales of London and Delhi spice up the goings-on. Background music by Illayaraja is too good. The theme music deserves applause. Songs are good too but they take a backseat. Baatein Hawa Hai is hardly there while Cheeni Kum comes now and then in the background. Sooni Sooni's only first two lines are featured towards the end. Jaane Do Na is the only song that is actually there. The costumes are perfect – especially that of Tabu are a treat to the eyes.On the whole, Cheeni Kum is a decent entertainer. Must watch it at least once.
ryanl065 Cheeni Kum is an unusual tale between an old, bitter restaurant owner and a lonely, young tourist. The strange love story that emerges between them begins when the tourist, Nina (Tabu), stumbles into Buddhadev's (Bachchan) restaurant in London with a friend. When Nina sends her food back to the kitchen, Buddha is enraged by the disrespect that she shows his restaurant, because according to him, his restaurant has the best Indian food in London. He tells her that the accusations she made against the food that was prepared by one of his chefs was wrong. The next day, Nina shoves his words back down his throat when she comes back to his restaurant with the meal she ordered perfectly prepared. From there on, Buddha no longer looks at the glass as half empty; his outlook on life completely changed with the meeting of Nina. She brought out the fun side of him that had been missing for so long.Their relationship faces many challenges along the way, one in particular is when they try and take the next step in their relationship. With them being so far apart in age (Buddha is 64 and Nina is 34), it is not the norm in their society to be together. Nina's father is one who doesn't respect their relationship because of the age difference and therefore doesn't respect their decision to be together forever.Cheeni Kum has the potential to be a very well known Bollywood movie, but because of the long drawn out way in which it was performed, it is not one that I would recommend that anyone go see. Cheeni Kum didn't have the long songs that portrayed what was going to happen in the film and by not doing this went against what Bollywood Cinema is really all about. There were many things that happened in this movie that brought me to the conclusion that this was not a movie that I would watch again. One scene in particular that stuck out to me was when Nina and Buddha were attacked by the hoodlums on the street. They were suddenly surrounded by them, and then shortly after the townspeople all gathered around and scared the hoodlums away. I thought that this scene, while shot with an overhead view showing everything that was going on, was not one that was necessary for the making of this movie to be complete. Overall, I thought that this movie could have been better if it had been short and to the point without all the unnecessary scenes being put in just to take up time.
ek-maneesha To begin with I never liked the too old guy and young girl concept movies, as it creeped me out. But Cheeni Kum is not about that, its amazing how the Creator has escaped the needless details of such relationship without missing the important point, that Love is Blind!!Well for me this movie qualifies for one reason and that is the dialogs of the movie. The conversations between Tabu and Amitabh are just so catchy and one can relate to both talking each other's out! The chemistry between the two characters makes u totally forget their age. I liked the movie and its a must watch for people who are in love with something which others might not approve of. I recommend it to the people who are trying to define love also as it is an eye opener. The great humor doesn't hurt too! So go ahead and enjoy!