Though I couldn’t manage to get tickets for this movie in the all-time favorite ‘Satyam Cinemas’, I did manage in a newly cropped multiplex, high above the Ampha Skywalk Mall.. well it was the PVR in chennai.. With three rounds of screening… ( post a metal detector :( … ) , ticket checking, body frisking and a bag-checking (phew !!! ) … where in which the umbrella had to go in for a separate token (I was wondering when this redtape is gonna be over !!! ).. all I had to loose was the first 15 minutes of the movie “It’s A Wonderful Afterlife “(IAWA)…. Well that explains i had left with only 85 minutes of the remaining movie..
Did i really get to believe that it was witnessing only 85 minutes of it ?? Hmm.. let’s not conclude that here before further reading ;).. Gurinder Chadda again comes back with a Punjabi family …errr… not exactly a family this time, but a mother-daughter duo.. If in the “Bride & Prejudice” aka “Balle.. Balle… Amritsar to L.A” it was Mrs. Bakshi’s concern (more appropriately constant worrying) over the marriage of her 4 daughters, here in IAWA, it’s Mrs.Sethi who is determined to get her only daughter married away happily.. Mrs. Sethi’s (Shabana Azmi) determination goes overboard to the extent of even killing people (in her own way) who rejected her rather unattractive, plump daughter Roopi.
The ghosts of her victims continue to haunt Mrs. Sethi as they couldn’t be reincarnated unless their murderer dies. Mrs. Sethi has no regrets in killing herself but she has to find her daughter a suitable match before that. In addition to the four victims, an accidental victim, her neighbour Mrs.Goldie joins the wagan of ghosts to help Mrs.Sethi in this matrimony mission. ( oh.. don’t look for the logical reasons here !!! ). Comes in a tall, dark, handsome childhood friend, Raj (Sendhil Ramamoorthy) who by the way spies on Roopi reluctanlty playing an undercover cop. Well .. the rest of the story is very much predicatable but the much elongated climax quite mercilessly test the patience of the viewers.
The ghosts who reappear in the very same manner they were murdered, Roopi’s mate Githali @ Linda with her psychic powers and obsession for Indian sprituality keeps you in splits but quite scarcely.The thrown in gags and a few practical jokes are a fun but couldn’t help much to the weaker screenplay.
With an actor of such magnitude as Shabana Azmi, what was rendered was an average package of a movie with few fun elements which was a disappointment. As such, the churned up curry fails to appease your taste buds..May be the recipe by itself is little bland (just like the hotdogs sold at PVR.. I didn’t like them much 
Go for the movie for the mere comical interludes.. look for nothing more..!! you might enjoy it :)..
