Ramji Londonwaley (2005)

Ramji Londonwaley: Directed by Sanjay Dayma. With Madhavan, Samita Bangargi, Harsh Chhaya, Suneeta Sengupta. A small-town cook moves to London to earn a living, but from his employer’s sudden death to the immigration officials on his trail, plans soon go sour.

“I really, really loved this movie. It was a simple and heartfelt story about a good, caring and simple man who tries to take care of his sister and gets into a load of trouble along the way.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI found the story very moving, and the performances, in my opinion, were all very good. Madhavan shines in the lead role (he plays strong, sensitive, and simple very well…and looks good too, I might add – sorry just had to put that in there!), and the lead female actress is great too. The other actors all do a decent job. The guy who played u0026#39;Jaiu0026#39; was generally very good, but his scenes with the u0026#39;Samirau0026#39; character were stilted. I cringed every time he called her u0026#39;babyu0026#39;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe film has a strong message, about being true to yourself, and finding good in others. Thereu0026#39;s also a message about using your talents and appreciating the gifts we each have. For me, the love that grew between the lead characters was very believable, and was the anchor for the story. We saw it develop over time – it wasnu0026#39;t over-sexualised or ridiculously sudden like in a lot of movies. And a lot of topical issues were dealt with in the movie, but not in a preachy way (see Shah Rukh Khanu0026#39;s u0026#39;Pardesu0026#39; for an example of a Hindi movie that preached at the audience – I felt I was being hit over the head with a mallet). In u0026#39;Ramji Londonwaleyu0026#39;, the messages are more subtle and therefore seem more sincere.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eI wasnu0026#39;t expecting too much from this movie (and it does start out a bit slow), but I was very pleasantly surprised at how much I loved and enjoyed it. A good job by all.”