My Friend Pinto

Plot

Michael Pinto (Babbar) is a well-intentioned simpleton born and brought up in a small Goan village. His world revolves around his doting mother, and his passion for music. After his mother's sudden death, he decides to become a priest in order to fulfil her last wish. Before attending school, he decides to go on a week-long trip to meet his childhood friend Sameer (Mathur) in Mumbai. Sameer convinces his unwilling wife Suhani (Seth) to host him for a while. He goes to train station to receive him, where Michael unknowingly disrupts a meeting between Maggie (Koechlin), an aspiring dancer who instantly attracts his attention, and Mahesh, a crook who intends to sell her to a pimp in Delhi. Michael's arrival at the house interrupts Suhani's new year eve plans so the couple decide to leave him there unattended.

Michael moves around the house clumsily, breaking a couple of vases and finds the sealed letters that he had written to Sameer in one of them and realises that he never read them. While looking at the night sky, in the balcony he accidentally locks himself out. He escapes with the help of a nearby drainage pipe, and later ends up in a music shop, where he encounters a local Don (Deshpande), who is impressed by Michael's musical talent. The Don heads a small disorganised criminal organisation, which is responsible for a recent kidnapping. His assistant Mac (Zutshi), plans to assassinte him in order to take over as his position, and blackmails two of the Don's most loyal henchmen Ajay and Vijay (Amin and Karim Hajee), into doing the job.

Michael tries to find his way back to Sameer and Suhani's apartment. Meanwhile, the couple who are stuck in the traffic contemplate their relationship problems, which are mainly triggered by Suhani's workaholic nature and close relationship with her boss, Venky (Bhatt). Michael, on the other hand, keeps getting into trouble because of his naive nature. He tries to help a group of street kids in rescuing a stray dog, only to have his wallet stolen, and later goes into a casino to help a complete stranger (Khan) win money to pay off his debts.

Michael is once again left alone to wander on the streets of Mumbai. He spots Maggie on the top of a building, presumably attempting a suicide and quickly comes to her rescue. He finds out that she was supposed to leave for Delhi with Mahesh who had promised to help her become a dancer (unaware of the man's true intentions). She tells him that she missed out on the opportunity because of the meeting between the two, that delayed her at the station. Michael, who is completely enamoured with Maggie's personality and charm tries to cheer her up and the two dance together in the rain. While taking a walk down a nearby street, she tells him that she ran away from her house because her mother, despite being a dancer herself, was against her taking up the profession. In return, he tells her about his only dream, which is to be a good son. The two encounter Maggie's uncle, who says that he found a job offer for her as a dancer. Excited on hearing the news, she leaves with him, but gives Michael her phone number asking him to call her later.

Michael gets in an accident with a drunken female driver, Reshma (Dutta) who turns out to be a failed actress and the Don's girlfriend. He offers her a ride home, which she readily accepts. At her home Reshma explains to him, in drunken stupor, that she suspects the Don of infidelity as she helps an unwilling Michael out of his dirty clothes. The Don arrives at her house to make up for an earlier fight, and she forces Michael into a wardrobe, where Ajay and Vijay are already hiding. The couple move past their misunderstanding, when the Don declares his love for Reshma. Michael meanwhile daydreams about Maggie, while playing a guitar in Reshma's backyard. The Don discovers him there and invites him to his party.

At the party, Michael comes across Sameer and Suhani and everyone else that he had encountered over the night including Maggie, who as it turned out was offered the job by the Don. The two briefly re-unite, but Maggie is pulled backstage where she overhears Mac's plan to assassinte the Don. She is taken hostage and put into a deep freeze refrigerator alongside a dead body that Ajay and Vijay had been carrying around all night. Unable to bring themselves to terms with killing their "big boss", the two leave him a letter detailing Mac's plan. They are later arrested by the police, but are at peace for not having betrayed their boss.

Meanwhile, the Don invites Michael onto the stage for a performance, and the latter obliges. Suhani berates Venky after he tries to seduce her and reconciles with Sameer, who later punches Venky, much to her wife's amusement. Michael sabotages Mac's plan to assassinte the Don, and ends his performance to a huge applause from the audience, which includes all of his "friends". Amidst all the chaos he manages to hold on the dog that he had helped rescue, and he gives it to the Don who intended to present it to Reshma, as a new year gift. Michael re-unites with Suhani and an emotional Sameer, who is overwhelmed because of earlier disregard of his friend. As Michael glances across the crowd, he finds a smiling Maggie walking towards him and smiles back at her.

Cast

Development

My Friend Pinto, conceived as a musical comedy, was directed by Raaghav Dar in his directorial debut. He had previously worked as an assiatant director under such directors as Mani Ratnam for Guru and Abbas Tyrewala for Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na. It was while working on the latter that Dar devised the script for his first feature film. My Friend Pinto was produced by filmmaker Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in his first feature film production venture. He came across the script while he was working on an opera with Dar. Bhansali was impressed by the "fabulous and fascinating" script's humor, perspective and unusual characters. He was also drawn towards the project because it was unlike anything that he had previously done.

Pre-production work began after Bhansali agreed to proudce the film. With assistance from him, Dar started work on adapting the first draft into a full length screenplay. In an interview with Shilpa Jamkhandikar of the Daily News and Analysis, Bhansali said that he did not want to interfere with the film's creative process, and while present at the time of scripting and editing, he gave the film a certain space to grow. Reinstating his faith in Dar's abilities as a director, he said, "He has learnt a lot, has enough aptitude, has struggled and realised what it means to work here." Sahirr Sethhi worked as a script supervisor for Dar.

Prateik Babbar was cast in title role of Michael Pinto, a dim-witted but well intentioned simpleton from Goa. He first met Dar during the filming of Jaane Tu... Ya Jaane Na. While working on the project, the two made an agreement that Babbar would star in Dar's film, if he was to direct one. Media reports in January 2010 suggested that Dar and Bhansali were auditioning for a newcomer to star opposite Babbar as the female lead for the film. Shraddha Kapoor was rumored to be linked with the project during the early stages, but it was later confirmed that Kalki Koechlin had been selected for the role. Dar contacted Koechlin through Twitter after reading her post where she talked about being offered only "dark" roles. He then approached her with the film's script and suggested her to Bhansali, who eventually signed her for the role of Maggie, a naive Catholic girl form Mumbai and an aspiring dancer. Babbar and Koechlin learnt Charleston, a dance form named after the harbour city in South Carolina, for a musical sequence in the film.

Arjun Mathur and Shruti Seth co-starred as the unwilling hosts for the title character in Mumbai. Seth said that she played a "superficial and disgruntled" character, who despite a successful career seemed to have lost faith in human relationships. Divya Dutta, who played the role of a failed actress, said that she signed up for the project because of its "lovely script". As most of the main cast members were oblivious to slapstick, they attended workshops where they worked on their comic timing and body language, and the mannerism of speech required for the roles. Makrand Deshpande, Raj Zutshi, Shakeel Kha, Amin and Karim Hajee, Shikha Talsania, and Milind Joshi play supporting roles in the film.

Filming and post-production

Principal photography for My Friend Pinto was done on the streets of South Mumbai. Sunny Kaushal served as associate director to Dar for the film. Made on a total budget of around ₹90 million (US$1.4 million), the film was shot in parts over a period of two-and-a-half years. Filming for the film was especially difficult as it was done mostly during night-time, and the crew's "sleeping schedule went for a toss". As most of the scenes were shot on the streets of Mumbai, the crew had problems managing the makeshift sets; on one occasion a cow entered the premises which stalled the filming for hours altogether. In an interview with Shibani Bedi of India Today, Babbar said that the entire crew used to have multiple discussions on various aspects of the film throughout the entire filming process. During the last schedule in September 2010, Babbar worked extra hours to complete filming for the project to carry through with other commitments.

The team of editors for the production was headed by Film and Television Institute of India alumni Shan Mohammed and Dipika Kalra. Some scenes featuring Koechlin had to undergo additional dialogue replacement (ADR). The sound designing, ADR, and foley was done by local sound engineer Stephen Gomes. My Friend Pinto had multiple musical sequences choreographed by Longinus Fernandes. Post-production work for the film took place in the first half of 2011. Distributed internationally by UTV Motion Pictures, the final cut of the film ran for a total of 115 minutes.

Marketing and release

The first look for My Friend Pinto featured a smiling Babbar wearing a diving mask and a swimfin, while playing a guitar. Another poster featuring Babbar and Koechlin was released alongside the first look; the former was dressed in a leisure suit, while the latter wore a Traje de flamenca (a flamenco dress). A two-and-a-half minute long trailer for the film was released on 14 April 2011 on UTV Motion Pictures' official channel on YouTube.

Despite being associated with big production houses like SLB Films and UTV Motion Pictures, the film failed to garner much attention prior to its release, and that eventually translated into the poor opening at the box office. Babbar was vocal about his disappointment reagrding the manner in which the film was marketed, and criticised Bhansali's lack of involvemnet in promoting the project. However, the latter's spokesperson stated the contrary, saying that Bhansali had attended the promtional events in New Delhi and had given public interviews, something that he had not done for any of his previous ventures. My Friend Pinto was released theatrically on 14 October 2011. The DVD for the film was released on 8 February 2012.

Box Office

My Friend Pinto released theatrically in an India in fewer than 400 screens, and witnessed a very poor opening at the box office. It scraped a meager sum of ₹2.4 million (US$37,000) on its opening day. The figures did not improve much over the next two days, and the film managed to collect a relatively poor total of ₹8.7 million (US$140,000) during its opening weekend. The performance was relatively poor in rural territories as the film collected insignificant totals of ₹3.2 million (US$50,000) and ₹1 million (US$16,000) in parts of Rajasthan and Bihar respectively. Improved numbers in such urban markets as Mumbai and New Delhi, where the film collected ₹6.5 million (US$100,000) and ₹2.9 million (US$45,000) respectively, brought the first week gross to a total of ₹16.5 million (US$260,000). The film collected a total of around ₹18 million (US$280,000) in its entire run at the box office.

Critical reception

The film opened to mixed repsonse from film critics. Although the script drew criticism for its numerous subplots and inconsistent humour, the direction was mostly well received. The Indo-Asian News Service review was largely laudatory of the fiercely novel concept of the film that managed to deliver "tongue-in-cheek swipes at [...] Bollywood that we grew up watching and loving without knowing why we loved them in the first place." The reviewer also made note of the film's complex script, and asserted that although it was a difficult act to pull off on screen, Dar does it with "fluency and grace". Less impressed with the scipt was Preeti Arora of Rediff.com, who said that a simple quirky idea cannot guarantee a good film. She was also critical of the poor execution of the slapstick humor, which according to needed an "edgy script, crisp repartee and laugh-a-minute gags" to work in the first place. CNN-News18's Jhunki Sen was also appreciative of the film's low-key humour, saying that the viewers would "leave the hall with a silly grin on your face".

Despite the overall mixed response, the film's cast, Koechlin and Dutta in particular, drew praise for their performances. Arora gave contrasting opinionns about the two; she felt that Koechlin carried off her role effortlessly, while saying that Dutta, although capale of doing much more, ended up underplaying her character. In contrast, Livemint's Sanjukta Sharma highlighted Dutta's power-packed performance as the best among the emsemble. In a mixed review for The Times of India a reviewer singled out the arc involving Koechlin as being as the only respite in the film where, "all the goodness seems lost in too many subplots". The reviewer commented negatively on the lack of screen time for Koechlin's character. Response to Babbar's performance in the film was polarised, with adjectives ranging from "visibly awkward" to "charismatic". He was also dubbed as an odd choice in the role by some critics. In her review for GQ, Megha Shah deemed him average and remarked that he, "isn’t as heartwarming [...] but doesn’t grate on your nerves either". Noting the "visceral" sceen presence that Babbar showcased in the film, Mayank Shekhar of Hindustan Times wrote that it might, "not be enough to support an entire movie. But it’s endearing all right."