Yes Boss
A SLICK COMEDY

When it comes to the brass tacks, the only way for a struggler with big dreams to make it in the city is to say "Yes, Boss". Do what it takes to earn the moolah and then scram. Even if it means sacrificing personal relations along the way. This, the ultimate lesson in capitalism, is what young Shah Rukh Khan has learned with a vengeance and it is a way of life he lives to the hilt in the big bad city of Mumbai.

In order to attain his dream of owning an ad agency he must be at the beck and call of his charming playboy boss, Aditya Pancholi. There isn't much difference between boss and employee. Aditya has also achieved his position by the "Yes Boss" way. He is the filthy rich owner of an ad agency only by default, by marrying a wealthy, glamourous woman he doesn't care for. Shah Rukh is equally unscrupulous about money, cheating his boss of huge amounts of money. He feels it is a well earned fee for managing his boss' affairs with elan. 'Affairs' is the right word, for Aditya has a penchant for his beautiful models and apart from managing his boss' business, Shah Rukh also keeps his various women happy by lying through his teeth in order to cover up for Aditya. This creates some truly hilarious situations not only between Shah Rukh and the unfortunate women, but also between Shah Rukh and Aditya as both constantly try to take advantage of each other's weak point — which for Shah Rukh, is his dream of the promised ad agency, and for Aditya, his women and control over his wife's empire. The imaginative sets that make up Aditya's office and home deserve a special mention, for the outrageous, yet classy decor is a perfect reflection of his personality.

When Aditya and Shah Rukh both fall for beautiful Juhi Chawla, a new model on the scene, one falls in lust while the other falls in love. From then on Aditya spends the entire movie trying to jump into bed with Juhi and orders Shah Rukh to follow 'the usual procedure' and devise plans to help him. Poor Shah Rukh is in a fix — should he warn the innocent Juhi, or should he please his boss and concentrate on his dreams of big money? He settles for the latter, and as things become more and more comically complicated, there is also plenty of scope for moments of pathos and bitter humour as Shah Rukh is torn between money and love.

But it seems most of our filmmakers have decided that no Hindi film is complete without its heart wrenching, tear jerker moments. And no hero is complete without his mother. Never mind Oedipus, the real point of tension is never the threatened separation of the hero and heroine, but the threat of the hero somehow failing his mother in the end. Sure enough, Reema is on hand to provide the maternal angle, complete with the threat of a heart-attack in case she experiences any mental shock. With this threat hanging over his head, Shah Rukh proceeds to sort out the grand mess he is in, which, of course, involves his mother.

Fortunately for the movie, it does not really lapse either into hysterical emotion or bouts of moralising. The tone is light and relaxed throughout, despite the various emotional entanglements, as the lead pair realise the extent of their love for each other. Gulshan Grover is on hand to provide the villainously comic relief, a job he handles extremely well, especially in the final crazy sequences of the film. Johnny Lever is presented in a good dose too, with his usual brand of humour.

Following in the footsteps of recent light fare like Hero No 1 and Judaai, the bad guys in Yes Boss are not monsters from hell, but entirely human. It's a refreshing trend in the industry, and one that works particularly well in this comical movie. Aditya Pancholi excels as the charming but spineless and selfish playboy, entirely dependent on his wife's money. Shah Rukh and Juhi both give spirited performances with some great dance routines by Shah Rukh. But Juhi's costumes fail to neutralise that considerable amount of extra weight she has put on...

There are two glaringly disappointing features of Yes Boss. Firstly, though the music is catchy and upbeat, the songs shot on location in Europe seem like a mixture of those from the Shah Rukh-Juhi starrer Darr, and the Shah Rukh-Kajol starrer Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. (More so the latter when Shah Rukh is given a dialogue about protecting an Indian woman's izzat in a foreign land. No mention is made, of course, of the fact that he didn't bother to protect the izzat of Juhi's predecessors from the lustful Aditya when in India.)

Secondly, the film drags on for an excruciating few minutes after the hero and heroine, at the end of an extremely comic fight sequence, finally overcome all misunderstandings and rush into each other's arms. Just when you are happily heaving a sigh of relief on behalf of the lovebirds and expecting "The End" to come flashing on the screen... oh no, Reema enters for more emotional denouement. Nothing is valid without mamma's sanction. Never mind. Yes Boss remains a slick comedy with some very funny moments indeed.