Loins of Punjab Presents is a crisp and fun film. Also there are neither senseless stunts nor confused situations. Just satirical comedy for a change. And its fresh !
Directed by Manish Acharya’s Loins of Punjab Presents has the right balance of fun and some intelligent satire.
‘Loins of Punjab’ is a ‘desi’ club in the USA, which holds a reality show over the weekend named as – Desi Idol. The prize amount in this 2 days event is $ 25,000 which is the goal of the wannabe idol.
Manish Acharya also acts in the movie as Jameel Khan, the crude, heartless event manager. Among the participants is a cute girl Preeti, with a gifted voice, but she uses it only to sing. And there is her extended Gujju family, which does the speaking for her.
A socialite Rrita Kapoor who is a strong believer in astrology and numerology has the desire to win anyhow. She has the dream to use the cash prize for some publicity-earning charity.
Another character is Sania Rehman who does not know Hindi but has a deep-rooted dream to make it big in Bollywood thru this reality show.
Vikram Tejwani’s jobless as his job is now being outsourced to India. For this statistical Bachchan fan, it is the right opportunity to cash in.
We also have two Bhagara singers, gay and who rap a line using the swear word n number of times. By the way, they themselves don’t understand what their singing is all about!
A gora contestant. Josh Cohen, who has learnt classical music, loves India and knows only two Hindi songs ” …yeh hai Bombay meri jaan…” and our National Anthem. His girlfriend Opama Menon is too impressed with him for this ability to sing hindi songs.
The movie has no ups and downs, progresses briskly, no boring moments in this short film (1 ½ hours which is shorter as compared to any Hindi flick).
Cast of Loins of Punjab Presents:
Ajay Naidu – Turbanotorious B.D.G.
Shabana Azmi – Rrita Kapoor
Ayesha Dharker – Opama Menon
Samrat Chakrabarti – Trance Sen (Judge)
Shantanu Mukherjee – Himself
Darshan Jariwala – Sanjeev Patel
Manish Acharya – Vikram Tejwani
Seema Rahmani – Sania Rehman
Avantika Akrekar – Ashwini (Judge)
Sanjiv Jhaveri – Chris G. (Judge)
Loveleen Mishra – Alpa Patel
Kory Bassett – Otto
Kunaal Roy Kapur – Mr. White
Michael Raimondi – Josh Cohen
Jameel Khan – Mr. Bokade
Baylon Fonseca – Cameraman
Ishitta Sharma – Preeti Patel
Alexx O’Nell – Wesminton
Dhruv Singh – Ajay Gulati – Male MC
Pravishi Das – . TV Interviewer
Rani Bansal – Hasina – Female MC
CREDITS of Loins of Punjab Presents:
Produced by – Manish Acharya
Directed by – Manish Acharya
Writing credits – Manish Acharya & Anuvab Pal Cast (in alphabetical order)
Original Music – Michael Cohen
Cinematography – Arvind Kannabiran
Film Editing – Christopher Dillon
Production Design – Ayesha Punvani
Art Direction – Rohit Ganju
Costume Design – Rabiah Troncelliti
Makeup Department
Virginia Holmes – hair designer, makeup designer
Natasha Nischol – personal makeup artist
post-production – Nishant Radhakrishnan
Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Lakshmipriya Devi – first assistant director
Jay Oza – second second assistant director
Janani Ravichandran – second assistant director
Prashant Singh – third assistant director
Sound Department
Baylon Fonseca (adr recordist, dialogue editor, foley editor, production sound mixer, sound designer, sound effects editor, supervising sound editor)
Nakul Kamte (production sound mixer, sound designer, sound effects editor, sound mixer)
Eric Walendzinski – boom operator: New York
Camera and Electrical Department
Joe Anderson – additional first assistant camera
Animation Department – Nishant Radhakrishnan
Loins of Punjab Presents, movie review