Nagesh Kukunoor is back. There is an automatic association with sensibility when you think of NK's movies. None of his movies could be labeled as 'typical Bollywood stuff'. NK compelled us into thinking that he was always going to maintain his track record of making good movies. And the best part was that he made us think out of the genre mindset. We, his fans, always thought any movie by NK will be worth every penny we pay for the ticket. Unlike some famous directors who sometimes don't deliver but faithfully attempt several genres. NK's track record has been impeccable. Has he managed to keep it up? Or has he let us down? Is it possible that the Shreyas-NK combination fails? Let us find out.

Bombay to Bangkok (B2B) starts off with the narration of a cook at a small restaurant - Shankar Singh. Shankar narrates his own story as it goes on. Sometimes being the soothsayer, sometimes being the voice of the audience sometimes being the conscience of Shankar. While this form of presentation adds a lot of laughs to a comedy film it sometimes becomes too intrusive into the movement of the story. Story? Did I say story? NK, where did you park your brains while writing this one dude? In my preview to this movie, I wrote and reiterated about the strong storylines being a constant feature in your movies. And here you come up with a movie that has the depth of a carrom board. I have been letdown big time.

Let me attempt at conveying to people what you have attempted to tell us - the unlucky viewers of B2B. Shankar stumbles upon a bag of cash left behind by an underworld down in his restaurant. He decides to run away with that money and ends up in Bangkok posing as Dr. Bhatawdekar where he prescribes viagra to every patient who comes to him. Dr. Bhatawdekar is a obstetrician - referred to as jeevandhara ki jwalamukhi (a sly reference to erectile dysfunction)! That was the only thing that had me cracking up in the entire movie. Everything else seemed forced laughs. Shankar, unwittingly leaves the cash in a box of medicines in the flight to Bangkok. Can someone tell me why he would do that? I must be a real nut because I didn't understand that simple thing. But what's that simple thing?! The rest of the story involves Shankar running around just to find that cash bag.

In the process he finds time to get himself a massage from a beautiful female masseur, give her a lecture on how not to sell her body and give some gyaan to all the chote khayaal waale people, sing and dance a totally pointless song with her in a Thai club, lie to her family about his close friend Aishwarya Rai, expose a medicines racket, send that lady to jail and finally get a dose of sensibility from a hip-hop rapper-cum-son of an underworld don JamK. In the middle of all this, you are actually thinking is this movie really directed by NK?

Its not so much of the pointlessness of the whole movie that I have an issue with, I have seen worse movies and maybe even laughed at a few instances. The problem with 'Bombay to Bangkok' is that it belongs to a film-maker called Nagesh Kukunoor (NK) and that is something I am unable to accept. Nowhere, and I say that again nowhere, does the movie bear his stamp of class. Its inane throughout. Sans a sense of being a 'good movie'. That's something, as I have said before, you expect as a minimum standard from NK. Alas! he lets us all down!

My rating: *

Legend:
*Stay at home
**If you have the time to kill, go ahead, but not recommended
***Watch if you are a film buff!
****Go watch it on the big screen!
*****Don't miss watching this one on the big screen! Avoid piracy!