D haram Sankat Mein is the story of Dharampal Trivedi, a Hindu with an unhealthy hatred for Muslims, who finds out that he’s adopted and born to Muslim parents. Sounds promising, right? It gets even better. Dharam needs to become a “dharmic” Hindu to impress his son’s lover Shraddha, whose father is a devout follower of Neelanand Baba (Naseeruddin Shah’s attempt at playing the Baba from MSG ). It is at this point that he realises his biological father is on his deathbed and sets off to meet him only to be turned away for not being a Muslim.
During the day, Dharam tries to be a better Hindu for his son. During the night, he sneaks out to his Muslim neighbour’s (Annu Kapoor) house to learn more about Islam for his father. You genuinely feel for Dharam in these portions, which are also the best parts. This includes a hilarious scene where he kisses a punditji on the back of his hand and greets him with a salaam alaikum . In another scene, he is taught to pronounce the syllable Kh right (from the epiglottis, like in My Name is Khan ).
Despite these enjoyable moments in the first half, the film turns into a contrived mess and its lovable characters suddenly turn preachy and whiny. What makes this worse are the performances of the supporting cast which seem terribly inadequate in the presence of great actors such as Paresh Rawal and Annu Kapoor, who ironically enough play supporting characters in other films.
As the film ends with a sentimental speech about all gods being one (yawn), you wish you had just stayed home and watched Oh My God! or PK once again. Surely, there’s something fundamentally wrong with a film in which you can’t stand Naseeruddin Shah.
