Rubberband Films’ Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost is about electricity coming to a remote village of Rajasthan, thanks to the efforts of a senior visionary who lives there. The old man’s grandson lives in the city and while on a visit to his village, decides to gift a television set to his grandfather. The idiot box becomes a wonder box for the illiterate villagers who’ve never dreamt of such technology, leave alone experiencing its effects. The television, kept outside the old man’s house, acts like a virtual magnet, attracting the villagers, old and young, men and women, who soon get addicted to it.

This is where writer and director Apoorva Lakhia’s unconventional and inventive story is set. Kanji (Abhishek Bachchan), a domestic worker in Mumbai, returns to his village after 10 years to meet his Dadaji (Snehal Lakhia) bringing the gift of an unwieldy dish antenna and a colour TV.

The recent arrival of electricity makes this the perfect present, he thinks, to entertain and educate the villagers. What neither he, nor his grandpa or best friend Surya (Aditya Lakhia) anticipate is that it will lead to jealousy, apathy and violence.

It is also the catalyst for a host of amusing situations like Abdul (Shubro Bhattacharaya) getting bewitched by slow motion and adopting it, or Hari (Dayashankar Pandey) beginning to dream about playing a western movie hero, like Feroz Khan.

Simultaneously the love story of Kanji and KC (Lara Dutta) is developing. And there’s the scheming village Pandit (Akhilendra Mishra) trying to woo back the temple devotees by complaining to and manipulating the village Thakur (Yashpal Sharma), who rules by fear rather than respect.

Technically, the film scores with an excellent set and costumes. But the content is so poor that one can't help but ignore all the plus points in the film. The dialogues have nothing new to offer.

Abhishek Bachchan, as always, shows signs of brilliance, but yet again he has been affected due to a weak film. The poor guy would have to still wait for his first hit. Lara Dutta looks glamorous and does nothing other than showing her cleavage and smiling. However, there are some impressive performances from people like Aditya Lakhia and Yashpal Sharma. Characters like Akhilendra Mishra and Chunky Pandey just go over the top. Dayashanker Pandey, Ajay Khamosh, Shubro Bhattacharya and Rageshwari are just about average.

In MSAMD, Anu gives a mix of many kinds - 2 love songs, one item song, a holi song and a song about rebellion. An album that may not be very promising when listened in isolation but may grow and do well with the movie.

Mumbai Se… reminds you not to take the simpler things in life for granted, and scores over bigger blockbusters for taking risks and being original.