General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20267 min read

Well Done Abba (वैल डन अब्बा)

Well Done Abba (वैल डन अब्बा) is a 2009 Hindi-language satirical comedy-drama directed by Shyam Benegal, in which a Mumbai chauffeur named Armaan Ali recounts to his employer why he was away for three months, ostensibly to find a husband for his daughter, while actually fighting the corrupt bureaucracy of a government well-digging scheme in his village near Hyderabad.¹^•² The film was produced by Reliance Big Pictures and released in Indian cinemas on 26 March 2010.³ It won the National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues at the 57th National Film Awards.⁴

Key fact	Detail
Director / production	Shyam Benegal; produced by Reliance Big Pictures³
Release	26 March 2010, in 370 screens across 9 countries including India, UAE, US, Canada, South Africa, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Mauritius³
Runtime and certificate	144 minutes, Hindi, color; certified U/A in India⁴^•⁵
Lead cast	Boman Irani as Armaan Ali and his twin Rehman Ali; Minissha Lamba as Muskaan Ali; Sammir Dattani as Arif Ali; Ravi Kishan as Sub Engineer Vikas Jha; Ila Arun as Salma Ali²
Writers and music	Screenplay and dialogues by Ashok Mishra, with Jayant Kripalani also credited as writer; music by Shantanu Moitra¹^•³
Literary sources	Adapted from the novels Narsaiyyan Ki Bavdi by Jeelani Bano and Phulwa Ka Pul by Sanjeev, and from "Still Waters", a screenplay treatment by Jayant Kripalani⁶
Major award	National Film Award for Best Film on Social Issues, 57th National Film Awards (Rajat Kamal and a cash prize of Rs 150,000)⁴
Audience rating	7.2/10 on IMDb from about 2,100 votes⁷

Spoilers

Plot

Armaan Ali is an illiterate driver working for a senior executive in Mumbai.⁶ He takes a month's leave to find a husband for his teenage daughter Muskaan, who lives near Hyderabad, and returns to work only after three months, at which point his employer threatens to sack him but agrees to hear his explanation.² The story he tells, on a drive from Mumbai to Pune, forms the body of the film.⁸

His home is the village of Chikatpally near Hyderabad, where water is scarce and villagers walk miles for a bucket of water.⁹^•⁸ Armaan applies for a government scheme that gives money to people below the poverty line to build a well (a baoli) on his land. To qualify he obtains a Below Poverty Line certificate, and the film notes that even on payday he falls above the poverty line, dipping below it once rent is paid and money is sent back to his village.⁹ The well is never actually built, but the money comes in and is spent paying off the block development officer, the engineer, the subcontractor, and even a photographer who supplies stock pictures for the government files, so that the well exists only on paper and in photographs.¹⁰^•⁹ At one point a civil engineer records on government files that a freshly dug well exists on Armaan's land, although none can be seen.⁸

Disheartened at never having seen a drop of water from the well, Armaan files a police first information report about the missing baoli and discovers that 75 villagers have been defrauded in the same way.¹⁰ The villagers go to the police and then to the minister, and publicize the issue through the media; with elections approaching, the irrigation minister has the wells built as an electoral priority, and the villagers finally get the baolis they were originally promised.¹⁰^•¹¹ Alongside the main plot, Armaan deals with his twin brother Rehman, a rogue involved in petty crime and water theft, and with the marriage plans of Muskaan, who negotiates a relationship with the mechanic Arif Ali.⁹^•¹²

Themes

The film is a satire on corruption in the implementation of government welfare schemes for the poor, showing bribery entrenched at every level from the clerk and tehsildar to the engineer, and even the neighborhood photographer.¹¹ Reviewers also noted its side observations on the misuse of women's reservations in the Panchayati Raj system, where the woman sarpanch is a figurehead for her husband, on rich sheikhs marrying and abusing poor girls from Hyderabad, and on the aspirations of small-town youth.¹⁰ A 2025 academic analysis treated the film as a case study of governance failure and the role of the Right to Information in exposing corruption, concluding that satire of this kind promotes civic awareness and democratic engagement.¹³ India Today placed the film within a 2010 wave of Bollywood films, including Peepli Live and Raajneeti, that took corruption as their subject.¹⁴

Production and release

Shyam Benegal, a leading figure of Indian parallel cinema whose earlier films include Ankur, Nishant, Manthan, and Bhumika, directed the film; it followed his rural satire Welcome to Sajjanpur.¹⁵ Benegal described it as "a happy comedy with a touching story", while the Civil Society feature noted a marked undertone of anger beneath the comedy.¹⁵ The film is a remake of the Marathi film Jau Tithe Khau (2007).¹⁶ Boman Irani, who played both twins, worked on a Hyderabadi accent for the role and built rapport with Minissha Lamba, who plays his daughter, by chatting with her in the evenings during the shoot.¹⁷ It was the only film Irani made with Benegal.¹⁸ Ila Arun, who plays Salma, wrote a wedding song for the film at Benegal's request.¹⁹

Reliance Big Pictures released the film on 26 March 2010 in 370 screens across nine countries.³ Some catalogs and streaming listings date the film to 2009, and one UK listing gives a September 2010 release date; the studio's own announcement gives 26 March 2010.¹^•²⁰

Reception and awards

Critics praised the writing and performances. India Today's review called the premise "as brilliant as it is absurd" and credited Ashok Mishra's screenplay with close observation of village life, while Hindustan Times rated it three stars and called it a fine black comedy weakened by its pace.¹⁰^•⁹ The trade reviewer Komal Nahta judged the dialogues and performances excellent but predicted limited box-office appeal because of the slow pace and class-oriented treatment.⁶ Open magazine was more negative, finding much of the film full of clichés while singling out its moments of acutely observed reality.⁸

At the 57th National Film Awards, the film won the Rajat Kamal for Best Film on Social Issues, with a cash prize of Rs 150,000; the jury citation described it as "a socio-political satire about a common man's fight for justice against an all-pervasive corrupt system".⁴ The award was Benegal's eighth National Award.²¹ Boman Irani later won a Zee Cine Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role, and the film received nominations at the Dubai International Film Festival, the Annual Central European Bollywood Awards, and the Stardust Awards.²²

References

Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Indian films (individual works) › Hindi films of the 2010s › Hindi films of 2010

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026

Notice something wrong?