Mere Baap Pehle Aap (2008): watch the full film free, legally

A father treated like a son

Mere Baap Pehle Aap, translated as My father, first, is a 2008 Indian Hindi-language comedy-drama directed by Priyadarshan. It remakes the 2001 Malayalam film Ishtam, directed by Sibi Malayil. The cast includes Akshaye Khanna, Genelia D'Souza, Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Manoj Joshi, Archana Puran Singh, Shobana and Rajpal Yadav.

Paresh Rawal plays Janaradhan Vishambhar Rane, a widower who has devoted his life to raising his sons Chirag and Gaurav since they were toddlers. Now grown, Gaurav runs a mall and takes responsibility for his father. Their household arrangement reverses the usual parent-child roles. Gaurav treats Janaradhan as though he were his son, watching over him with the vigilance of a strict parent.

Janaradhan's friend Madhav Mathur is divorced and eager to marry. Janaradhan and Madhav are continually looking for a bride for Madhav, creating trouble that Gaurav must resolve. Gaurav shouts at, threatens, fights with and sometimes locks up his father to keep Madhav from influencing him. Their escapades repeatedly leave Gaurav embarrassed.

A college rival and a past love

Akshaye Khanna plays Gaurav J. Rane, while Genelia D'Souza plays Shikha N. Kapoor, also known as Rose. Gaurav begins receiving prank calls from Shikha, a former college classmate whom he had bullied and ragged, even cutting her hair. Shikha is staying with her guardian, Anuradha Joshi, played by Shobana.

Anuradha is Janaradhan's first love. When Janaradhan and Anuradha meet again after many years, Gaurav and Shikha notice changes in their behaviour and learn about their former relationship. Gaurav decides that his father should marry his lost love. He and Shikha set out to arrange a marriage between Janaradhan and Anuradha, while finding soul mates in one another.

The plan faces resistance. Shikha's father Nirmal Kapoor objects to his daughter marrying into a family where her prospective father-in-law is arranging his own honeymoon, and threatens to end Gaurav and Shikha's relationship. Chirag's wife Rupali and her family also object. Meanwhile, Madhav's search for a bride leads to SP Bhavani Bhaagmaar Mathur. Naseeruddin Shah plays Nirmal, Manoj Joshi plays Chirag, Preity Pundir plays Rupali, and Archana Puran Singh plays Bhavani.

Songs, score and filming locations

Ranjit Barot composed and produced the original score. Vidyasagar composed the soundtrack songs. Guest composer Tauseef Akhtar composed “Ishq Subhan Allah” and its remix, while Sameer wrote the lyrics for every song. Mumaith Khan appears in the item number “Shamma Shamma.”

The song “Jaana Hai Tujhko” was filmed in Kerala. Filming also took place at Mehboob Studios in Bandra and Film City in Goregaon, as well as in Goa, Chennai and Mumbai. Other cast members named include Rajpal Yadav as Mannu, Arzoo Govitrikar as Anjana “Anju” Rao, Arjun Hansda as Gourav Kumar, and Sunil Barve.

Reception and box-office performance

The film had a decent opening and ultimately grossed ₹22,70,50,000 in India. Its first-day collection was 2.60 crore, and its first-week collection was around 16.38 crore. Box Office India declared it “Average.”

Anupama Chopra, writing for NDTV, gave the film a negative review, saying that the story had potential for comedy and heart-warming drama but calling the result crude, loud and unfunny. Sukanya Verma of Rediff.com awarded 2.5 stars out of 5, describing shifts from a B-grade version of Basu Chatterjee's Shaukeen through comedy, a father-son tale and Kerala tourism to social melodrama. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama also gave 2.5 out of 5, calling the first hour entertaining and the second less so, and suggesting a reduction from 2.40 hours to 2.10 hours.

Film details from the Wikipedia article “Mere Baap Pehle Aap”. Text adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0.