A stylish, stiff upper-lipped, high-flying lady executive from Mumbai (Lara Dutta) and a crass, loud-mouth, street-smart, small-time trader from Delhi (Vinay Pathak). What happens when their seemingly diametrically opposite worlds collide?  Yes, that’s what happens when the lady misses her Delhi flight, ends up at Jaipur and has to travel through the night to Delhi for her urgent meeting. Because the only savior she has in her unexpectedly tedious journey is the uncouth fellow passenger she has come to hate!

The fun part of these movies is in the moments of culture shock and zany unexpected situations and Chalo Dilli does provide a fair share of those. Vinay Pathak is a past master of such earthy comic roles and he once again proves his mettle with an excellent performance. Lara Dutta is a surprise package though. The tall, lissome lady gets a meaty role perhaps for the first time and she does pack a punch in her portrayal.

Chalo Dilli may have borrowed concepts from many ‘on-the-road, chalk-and-cheese couple escapades’ from Hollywood but the writer and director should get kudos for creating a perfectly believable (for most of the time at least!) desi comedy out of that. When you consider that they have shown the courage to leave out the romantic angle altogether, their achievement becomes even more creditable. The second half of the film does drag and could have been better written. The final twist especially seems a bit contrived.

But overall, Chalo Dilli comes across as a pleasantly real Indian Hindi film in an era which is dishing out needlessly phony Western Hindi films! Its intelligent comic treatment also comes as a welcome change from the ever-growing crop of brainless comedies!