In the recent years there have been films in which, Kiron Kher deservingly got her share of praises, playing the Punjabi Mother of the lead actors. In this friendly trend, she not only got some good scenes, but even got special songs featuring her as the lovable comic mother, like in the Hit track "Maa Da Laadla" from DOSTANA.
As a result, following the ages old tradition of Bollywood (wherein the film-makers try to encash whatever gets successful at the box office in any form), here comes a film completely written and conceived around the central character of a Punjabi Mother played by the obvious choice, Kiron Kher. Now no doubt, it was a nice idea to exploit all those trendy Punjabi Elements in a film roped around a concerned but teasing mother. But it's the treatment and performances from the supporting cast (other than 3 known actors) in the film, which becomes the real spoilsport here.
Supposed to be a comic family drama with all those essential emotional ingredients, MUMMY PUNJABI fails at almost all levels due to its amateurish kind of execution of some overused plots. Actually it keeps hanging between the genres of an emotional drama and a comedy but in the end comes out to be neither of the two with a big imbalance in its various consequences. There is too much happening in the script resulting in a chaos which overshadows the important nuclear family issue in the film in an awful manner. In short, the director makes a big mess of his basic idea and misses his own set mark by a large distance.
In actual terms, a certain section of viewers could have liked the later part of the movie due to its relevant plot, truthfully showcasing the questionable situation in Punjab today. But unfortunately, the initial part of the film is so childish that one loses the courage to watch the rest of it, right in the start. The camera-work, background score and music is pretty ordinary and even Gurdas Maan's song appearance cameo, sounds un-entertaining and tiring.
Performance wise, Kiron Kher not only suits her role perfectly but she also performs with her full spirit along with being a bit over the top at times. Yet, she clearly comes out to be a lovable worried mother, if considered alone, keeping the movie project aside. Kanwaljeet as her husband acts fine and Divya Dutta once again excels as the talkative maid. But the entire rest of the cast is not able to support Kiron Kher in any way putting up a very poor show as far as acting is concerned. In fact at times they even cross the limits of being called Tolerable.
In all, MUMMY PUNJABI is nothing more than a calculative effort to encash the Punjab Mother image of Kiron Kher, established by some recent big movies. But the makers fail to convert the good idea into an entertaining movie and in the end come up with a big amateurish mess.
