That Mira Nair's (Salaam Bombay, Kama Sutra) comedy-slash-romance-slash-drama has garnered kudos left and right is a bit of a mystery. If one were to take the plot and characters, transport the lot to, say, Beverly Hills, and change the skin colours from brown to white, you would have nothing more than a mildly diverting Father of the Bride-like tale, complete with a wacky wedding planner à la Martin Short in the Steve Martin vehicle. But I guess setting the whole thing in New Delhi and populating it with middle-class Punjabis who sing and dance at the drop of a hat gives Nair's movie the acceptable patina of what passes for art film these days.

Lalit (Naseeruddin Shah), a caustic New Delhi businessman and the patriarch of the Verma clan, is in a tizzy. It's only four days until the arranged marriage of his only daughter Pimmi (Lillete Dubey), the relatives are starting to arrive, and nothing is going right. Wedding planner P.K. Dubey (Vijay Raaz), behind on the construction of the tent, is demanding more money when he's not munching on the marigolds that are supposed to be used for more decorative purposes. Bride-to-be Pimmi hasn't quite finished with the affair she's been having with a married TV presenter and is none too sure about marrying someone she's never met. Over the four days, romance blossoms in unexpected places, the aforementioned singing and dancing continues with abandon, and at least one dirty secret (telegraphed early in the film) is revealed, contributing a touch of drama to the proceedings.

The revelation of the dirty secret serves as a perfect example of what is wrong with Nair's film (and by talking of it here I'm not spoiling anything-it is patently obvious from early on in the film). A revered family friend turns out to be a pedophile who abused the now adult Ria (Shefali Shetty), Lalit's niece, when she was a child. Aside from being the dramatic cliché of the last few years (if I had a dollar for every movie I've seen with this subplot...), this tired abuse theme is only grafted onto the narrative to provide a cheap, easy way to give the film an additional layer of "seriousness." The proof is in the following scene: everyone is happily singing and dancing again, as if all is well with the world. Even a typical Hollywood film would be more circumspect in dealing with such a loaded issue.

The rest of the film is grab bag of the good and the bad. Bad acting shares the screen with some fairly funny situations, the Bollywood-style singing and dancing (good fun) compete with some syrupy homilies to the joys of family life, the "exoticism"-the most condescending meaning of the word-of the setting is offset by the near-Dogma style visuals. That the film more or less embraces the idea of arranged marriages is the most interesting aspect of the whole piece and a point of view sure to produce a lot of discussion. If only the rest of the film opted for some similarly controversial points, instead of settling for such a nauseatingly Hollywood-like "feel-good" tone.