2003 Indian film
Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost (lit. 'My friend from Mumbai has arrived') is a 2003 Indian Hindi-language drama film starring Abhishek Bachchan, Lara Dutta and Chunky Pandey. The film is directed by Apoorva Lakhia in his directorial debut. The film touched on the subject of the influence of television on village life.[1]
Synopsis
Dinanath Singh is honored by the Indian Government, which is televised live. While receiving the honors, Dinanath informs the Government that his village is still without electricity, and he is promised that electricity will be provided in his village immediately. And electricity is provided in the village. Dinanath's grandson, Karan "Kanji", who is in Mumbai, hears of this and returns to the village along with a C-Band ten foot satellite dish and a super flat stereo television. When the satellite is set up, the villagers are thrilled by the TV shows. This helps create a running gag of copying TV culture into the rural lives. The changes lead to the village priest complaining to Chotey Thakur Rudra Pratap Singh that the villagers are turning away from his temple and worship. Rudra is not concerned as he himself has a TV set in his home. But when the priest informs Rudra that his sister, Kesar Pratap Singh aka Kesi and Kanji are in love, Rudra makes a threat to destroy Kanji and all of the village in the presence of a TV crew filming the whole drama and telecasting it live worldwide. The plot comes to a culmination when, angered by Kanji's antics, Rudra arrives to destroy the village. The villagers stand up to the exploitation and fight Rudra and his goons.
Soundtracks
The music was created by Anu Malik.
Reception
Taran Adarsh of IndiaFM gave the film 1.5 out of 5, writing, "On the whole, MUMBAI SE AAYA MERA DOST has its moments of glory, but they're far to less to generate a lasting impact. Ordinary."[2] R Verma of Rediff.com gave a negative review, criticising the film's "costumes, storyline, logic and characterisation."[3] Also writing for Rediff.com, Sudipta Chakravarti wrote, "Instead of focussing on the power struggle, Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost runs into several other tracks that look completely out of place and derail the film" and called it "an ordinary movie that fails to create a lasting impact."[4]
