Cheeni Perfect!!!!!!!!

Been in London for 3 months now, and havent had a dekko at any movies in the theatre...... prime reason is that my permanent movie partner is back in mumbai while i am here.. another reason is i am plain lazy to go out alone.
Thats when Toshan and Deepti stepped in and forced me to watch a movie with them, while they were with me for a day in London.(Toshan is my college friend and Deepti is his wife studying in Bristol).
'Cheeni kum' was the chosen movie to break my fast of movies of 3 months. Quite a feat, considering that ever since i started working 7 years back, i have fed myself on a steady diet of movies. We missed the 1st 10 mins of the movie because we opted for a quick drink and bite at TGIF's near the theatre. But , then Toshan having seen the movie in India , gave us a quick background of what we had missed out, which didnt turn out to be much.
Cheeni Kum doesnt have a radically different concept to offer as far as storyline goes. A senior citizen fallin in love with a woman much younger to him. Three years back i wouldnt have made that statement.. but since then we have some movies that explored the concept....'Joggers park' and 'Nishabd' coming to mind immediately.(though have not watched jogger's park).
Amitabh is the 64 yr old bachelor chef owning his restaurant in London, and staying with his even older mom. Tabu is the software engineer coming down to London to work (hey thast very much like me). The whole story kicks off with Tabu, the customer rejecting an ordered dish back to the kitchen, and Amitabh berating her for the lack of knowledge of Indian cuisine. Tabu makes him eat humble pie by cooking up a perfect dish. And thats when the dating and love story game starts.
The name Cheeni Kum is pretty apt .... it is a perfect summation of the interaction between the lead couple. Full of dry humour and witty sarcasm, the couple make it a point to have barbs at each other.. in their own sweet way. While Amitabh is his usual self, Tabu gives him a good takkar allright in terms of screen presence and dialogue delivery. I have not seen in a long time a Bollywood movie that has relied so much on dry humour.. and with very good effect.
The movie ambles at a nice pace, allowing love to develope between the couple, and also introduce characters like Sexy and Amitabh's mom. I liked up the drummed up excuse of the umbrella to enable the couple to keep on meeting up..... as also the way Amitabh defends his vegeterianism and ridicules Tabu for her eating a fish dish. The movie is made up of small small moments full of sarcasm and ripostes between the couple, that you cant help but chuckle. Zohra Sehgal and Sexy perform their roles well too. I felt that Paresh rawal was kinda wasted in this movie.. esp in the last stages when he clams up. But he does bring up a chuckle or two when he always makes it a point to remind Amitabh that they both are old.
The only part i would complain abt is the melodramatic ending... but i guess thats the logical way to go for a bollywood getup.. else the movie simply wont feel like its ended.
Apart from it, its been no complaints........ this is Cheeni Perfect stuff.