Smart, funny, penetrating and thought-provoking.  A good social satire should have all these qualities and that’s what Well Done Abba makes you say. In his earlier films like Mandi and Welcome To Sajjanpur, Benegal had successfully explored satirical themes pointing out various social ills but his latest film is easily his best as far as the ability to connect to common man is concerned. 

Like many of his landmark films, Benegal sets up this film in Hyderabadi atmosphere with its engaging Dakhani dialect. The story goes like this: Called up by his conman brother Armaan (Boman Irani) and cunning sister-in-law (Ila Arun), the Mumbai-based driver Rehman Ali (Boman again!) comes to his village. His main aim is to get his young impish daughter (MInissha Lamba) married. But a host of unforeseen problems are waiting for him in the village. Getting wrongly arrested for his look-alike brother’s misdeeds is bad enough for Rehman but the real trouble starts when he decides to get himself enrolled as a person under poverty-line and get a government loan for constructing a well in his farm. It turns out to be an unending series of encounters with corrupt officials, each demanding his pound of flesh and each working hand-in-glove with the other. Driven to the wall with desperation, Rehman decides to take on the system. Aided by his daughter and her boy-friend (Samir Dattani), will he be able to get justice? Can a simple man bring the rolling juggernaut of the corrupt system to a standstill? Can he ever bring about any significant social change?

Outwardly the film starts off as a rather tall tale of woes from a middle-aged driver, who is coming back after an unexplained 3- month vacation and is trying to placate his angry boss. But hidden within his tragicomic story is a scathing commentary on various social issues plaguing the rural folk- particularly the Muslim community. Benegal’s grasp of rural India is unmatched. Using Ashok Mishra’s excellent screenplay, the director superbly portrays the all-pervading ignorance, blinkered thinking and rampant corruption through extremely believable characters and situations.  But he also cleverly sweetens that bitter pill with comic treatment.

Practically every actor in the film leaves his mark (with special mention for Minissha Lamba!) but this film well and truly belongs to Boman Irani. It is definitely his best performance till date. The way in which he essays Rehman Ali’s shy, uneducated yet good-at-heart character and then provides the counterpoint with Armaan Ali’s crooked, shady persona – it is a performance to cherish. The manner in which he changes his verbal language and body language is especially to be admired.

Well Done Abba is not without its flaws. There are plenty to point out. The film could have shed at least 45 minutes of unnecessary baggage. The explicit sequences involving Ravi Kishan and Sonali Kulkarni are pathetically and pathologically out of place. The romantic track could have been kept short and sweet; the songs could have been chopped off altogether and the ending could have been a lot crisper.

But despite all these shortcomings, Well Done Abba is a film which is a must-watch for any Indian. It just tells us the dark reality that lurks underneath the ‘India Shining’ story! And it does it with a smile!