Cheeni Kum (English: Less Sugar) is a 2007 Bollywood romance film directed by R. Balki, starring Amitabh Bachchan as a 64-year-old man, opposite Tabu, who plays a 34-year-old who falls in love with Bachchan. Produced by Sunil Manchanda, the film was released on 25 May 2007.

Plot[link]

Cheeni Kum focuses on Buddhadev Gupta (Amitabh Bachchan). Buddhadev is the 64-year old chef and owner of London's top Indian restaurant, Spice 6. He lives with his 85-year old mother, and his only friend and confidante is his 9-year old neighbour, sexy (Swini Khara). Buddhadev Gupta is an arrogant, ego-centric, pompous man with a singular passion in life—cooking. He is a confirmed bachelor who has never been in love until 34-year old Nina Verma (Tabu) walks into his restaurant and life. Nina is a beautiful and charming Indian woman. Cool, calm, quiet, always smiling, but independent and strong willed. The two extreme in age, character, and attitude. Met and against all odds fell in love, they decide to get married, and, like any Indian man, Buddhadev respectfully comes to ask Nina's father, Omprakash Verma (Paresh Rawal), who is a true Gandhian, living in Delhi, for her hand. The only problem here is the fact that Omprakash is 6 years younger than Buddhadev.

Cast[link]

• Amitabh Bachchan as Buddha-Dev Gupta
• Tabu as Nina Verma
• Paresh Rawal as Omprakash Verma
• Zohra Sehgal as Buddhadev's mother
• Swini Khara as Sexy
• Vinay Jain as Sexy's father
• Alexx ONell as English Waiter

Soundtrack[link]

Maestro Ilayaraja composed the songs and background score of the movie. The audio disc features seven tracks. The album opened to positive reviews. Fans of the composer have praised his efforts to successfully modernize and rehash his old tamil tunes to Hindi. Some fans though, blamed Raja for re-using his old compositions and criticized him for not composing a new original soundtrack for the film.

Reviewers such as Indiafm rated this film 3 stars out off 5 with Joginer Tuteja quoting "'Cheeni Kum' turns out to be an enjoyable album which has its moments throughout its 7 track duration. While one never expected a musical from a film which told a love story that had never been seen before, 'Cheeni Kum' manages to throw in a nice-n-little pleasant surprise." Other sites such as Planet Bollywood, Sulekha, and fellow internet bloggers have praised Raja's melodious tunes in comparison's to today's music given by Himesh Reshamiya or Anu Malik.

Similarly Businessofcinema.com gave the album a 3/5 rating and mentioned that "sounds of the instruments and Vocals blend in harmony to provide a simple yet powerful score. This album is a must have, especially to play in between all those generated scores we are usually subjected to."

Soundtrack[link]

Awards[link]

Cheeni Kum got one award and four nominations, including the Apsara Award for Best Movie (2008)

Reception[link]

Cheeni Kum mostly met with an average feedback. The acting has been universally praised. Also, the film's bold theme met with critical goodwill. However, the rather slow story lead some to label the film "boring" and the rather repetitive final part of the film met with some concern from reviewers and audiences alike.^{[citation needed]}

References[link]

This article does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (November 2009)

• Movie Review: Cheeni Kum on MovieWalah.com
• Cheeni Kum (2007) Movie Review at BollywoodArchive.com
• Businessofcinema.com : Cheeni Kum review

External links[link]

• Cheeni Kum
• Cheeni Kum at the Internet Movie Database
• Cheeni Kum: informational site
• Cheeni Kum at BharatMovies.com
• Cheeni Kum at SPICE
• Cheeni Kum at moviechamber.com

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