Pappu Can't Dance Saala Movie Reviews
3.0
Nikhat Kazmi | Times of India
The film takes an interesting look at the lives of all the small town aspirants who come chasing their dreams to Mumbai, mega city, carrying the baggage of their native culture with them. Vidhyadhar has been brought up in a middle class family in Benares while Mehak is a middle class girl from Kohlapur. While Mumbai's cosmo culture has seduced Mehak, Vidhyadhar still dreams of the ghats of Benares. Naturally, he is aghast at his new house-mate's attitude, her dress senseRead full review2.0
Mayank Shekhar | Hindustan Times
Survival’s a full-time job in Mumbai. Anybody who’s struggled their way through the city’s innards, always on the move, will know this. The makers of this movie do too. Their empathy constantly shows. Be that as it may, the hero here seems to be having a rather rougher day than usual. Roadside hawker refuses to serve him lunch because he complains too much. BEST conductor instructs him to get off the bus because his currency note’s soiled, or tornRead full review2.0
Rajeev Masand | ibnlive.com
For possibly the nth time in recent memory, Vinay Pathak returns to play the everyman in director Saurabh Shukla's slice-of-life drama 'Pappu Can't Dance Saala', which flirts with the issue of migrants struggling to make it in Mumbai. Pathak's character Vidyadhar arrives from Benares when he lands a job as a medical representative here. Almost immediately he finds it hard to wrap his head around everything from Mumbai's street-food and traffic, to the colloquial HindiRead full review2.0
Taran Adarsh | bollywoodhungama.com
Rom-coms with middle class setting instantly take you back to the days when Hrishikesh Mukherjee and Basu Chatterjee specialized in such themes. And Saurabh Shukla's new directorial venture PAPPU CAN'T DANCE SAALA walks the same path. It seems like an extension of what we witnessed in the 70s and 80s. But before you assume that the film is a musical or about a simpleton who *can't* dance, nope, it's not. Saurabh Shukla has the track recordRead full review2.0
Preeti Arora | rediff.com
Welcome back Mr Naïve Do-gooder. Not that you've been away for long. Especially Mr Vinay Pathak, who has done these roles often enough in the last five years -- Dasvidaniya, Chalo Dilli etc, etc. The success of one film (Bheja Fry) has ensured that we must endure simpletons as protagonists in at least a dozen more of these mind-numbing avatars. It's time directors and producers wake up and smell the coffee: Simpletons do not always ensure big-time laughs and break box office recordsRead full review2.0
Karan Anshuman | Mumbai Mirror
Small town fry arrives in big bad Bombay: it's an old theme, one frayed by repetition in Hindi films. Director Saurabh Shukla tries swiftly and smartly to establish the conflict of the situation as Pappu/ Vidhyadhar (Vinay Pathak) from Benaras has trouble crossing streets, berates a roadside food vendor on getting the recipe wrong, and educates a watchman on the tareeka of chewing paan, unsuccessfully. Meanwhile, Mehak Malvade (Neha Dhupia), who moves into the opposite flatRead full review2.0
Martin D'Souza | Glamsham
This movie is fundamentally flawed. There is a plot, but the premise is weak. Also, the so-called sub-plots don't really add up to the whole picture, making it an exercise in futility. To top it, the actual love story that takes place between Neha Dhupia and Vinay Pathak throws logic out of the window. I, for one, will not believe that a girl, who has come from Kolhapur with stars in her eyes, will settle for a portly nerd. That too when she has just been launched in a music videoRead full review2.0
Gaurav Malani | Indiatimes
Several Vinay Pathak films have used the basic premise of cross-connected chemistry between him and his costar (divided by social or economical status) resulting into some eventful proceedings (Bheja Fry series, Chalo Dilli). Pappu Can't Dance Saala is amusing as long as it exploits that kinda camaraderie between Vinay Pathak and Neha Dhupia. But beyond that when it strays into entirely different terrain, the movie loses its audienceRead full review2.0
Shubhra Gupta | Indian Express
Pappu is what fresh-off-the-train Vidyadhar Acharya gets called by brash Mumbai girl Mehak Malvade. Pappu is an omnibus word, and can be used in an affectionate manner, especially when addressing young boys. But when Mehak says Pappu, she means an amalgam of duffer plus fool plus loser. She could very well have used Lallu instead, but she wouldn’t know how, would she? Vidyadharji ( Pathak) has done nothing to earn that sobriquet, other than being his Banarasi Babu selfRead full review1.5
Komal Nahata | Koimoi
R-Vision India Pvt. Ltd. and Marriedprint Films Production’s Pappu Can’t Dance Saala (UA) is an unlikely love story of a small-town guy and a chorus dancer of Bollywood. Vidyadhar Acharya (Vinay Pathak) comes to Bombay from Varanasi and finds it difficult to adjust to the fast-paced life of the heartless city. His neighbour, Mehak Malavade (Neha Dhupia), is a chorus dancer in Bollywood who is loud and brash and who has adjusted to the city in spite of hailing from another small townRead full review1.0
Aakanksha Naval-Shetye and Soumyadipta Banerjee | DNA India
If you talk about stereotypes, then here’s an ideal example -- Mr Vinay ‘the always-desi-guy’ Pathak. Film, after film, after film Vinay Pathak is playing the same kind of roles and expects the audience to appreciate him. Well, for the record, they absolutely don’t, if the box office fates of his last few films are anything to go by. Now-a-days, if you see Vinay on screen, then be assured that he will portray at least seven of the following characteristicsRead full review1.0
Shubha Shetty-Saha | Mid-Day
This can't be a co-incidence. I have watched Vinay Pathak in at least three bad movies this year and in each of them, he plays the na ve simpleton, who is yet to learn the ways of the world. It is obviously the case of playing safe and typecasting an actor in a kind of character that might have enthralled the audience eons ago. Who doesn't know that even the best of dishes served every day gets repulsive? As you might have guessed by now, Vidyadhar AcharyaRead full review