Chachi 420

A divorced dancer, barred from seeing his daughter, disguises himself as an old woman and takes a job as a carer in his ex wife's household. The source is obvious: Mrs. Doubtfire from 1993. The step in between matters though, because this is adapted not from the American film directly but from Avvai Shanmugi, the Tamil version Kamal Haasan made in 1996. It is also the first film Haasan directed. An advertising filmmaker, Shantanu Sheorey, had been engaged to direct, and after five days of shooting Haasan was unhappy with the result and took over. The strength is the makeup and the physical work. In costume Haasan changes voice, walk and hands completely, and the character reads as a separate person rather than an impersonation. Tabu, Amrish Puri, Om Puri and Paresh Rawal fill the cast. Its flaw is that comedy built on deception starts repeating, and the woman at the centre is given very little agency in the story. Who it is for: fans of classic Indian comedy and of Kamal Haasan. Who it is not for: anyone expecting an original screenplay.