It does not begin promisingly: a bikini-clad babe emerges from the sea singing a saucy song, which translates as: “I am an innocent bud”. When she is chased by a lecherous older man on the beach, we immediately realise that this is going to be yet another Bollywood sex comedy.

Indeed, the first half focuses on the antics of the mature Mathur (Om Puri) who is intent on bagging himself a sexy young bride. He enlists the help of his best friend Rane (Paresh Rawal), a similarly aged widower in order to get his girl. Meanwhile, Rane’s staid bachelor son Gaurav (Akshaye Khanna) is being stalked by a mysterious girl called Rose (Genelia D’Souza).

Events take an unexpectedly serious turn when this motley crew attend a friend’s wedding in south India. Rane encounters his first love Teacher (Shobana). Romance re-blossoms. Will his son, conservative elder relatives and wider Indian society accept Rane’s late marriage?

Leading Malayalam, Tamil and now Hindi film director, the prolific Priyadarshan has made another of his trademark light family melodramas. The comic pre-interval portion is filled with the obligatory Bolly-base humour: expect jokes about bowel movements, stripping, and pissing.

It comes together in the second half when it addresses the taboo topic of mature marriages. This is because, as Rane is told by one of his pious peers, “older men should be going on pilgrimage, not honeymoon.”

Priyadarshan has fashioned a likeable uneven romcom which does manage to raise a few feeble laughs in the first slapstick hour and to engage in the final rhetoric-laden, climatic moments. His seasoned actors, especially Rawal, rise above a pedestrian script to keep us mildly entertained.

There are obvious flaws: at almost three hours, the film is too long, with unnecessary set pieces involving mistaken identity. Vidyasagar’s unexceptional songs add to the length barring one boat dance sequence stunningly filmed against the lush Keralan backwaters. Priyadarshan’s ‘progressive’ politics are also dubious: the elder woman’s viewpoint is sidelined and a dastardly daughter-in-law gets a hard slap which turns her into an agreeable smiling bahu.

This is a heretical and welcome take on the ‘parents decide and children accept’ formulaic bolly-melodrama. But worthy intentions cannot compensate for this father’s flaws.

Director: Priyadarshan, PG, 165 mins, Subtitles

Stars: Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Akshaye Khanna, Genelia D’Souza.

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