Cast: Akshay Kumar, Boman Irani, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Lisa Hayden, Jackie Shroff and Nargis Fakhri
Director: Sajid and Farhad
Rating: * *
Runtime: 140 mins
Pea-brained and downright catty, this attempted laugh riot basically caters to the brain-dead. Or if they are not then they could just as well be after watching this nonsensical comedy that goes all over the place trying to earn it’s laughs. I most certainly wasn’t amused.
A conservative Gujarati father Batuk (Boman Irani having a bad wig day) doesn’t want his 3 daughters Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati (Jacqueline Fernandez, Lisa Hayden and Nargis Fakhri) to get married in order to circumvent an astrologer’s prediction. So it’s up to their respective beaus Sandy, Bunty and Teddy (Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh) to convince him to let go. And how do they do that ? By pretending to be paraplegic, mute and blind in that order.
The three men are motivated by greenbacks not love and the three ladies are dim-witted (Barbie types) enough to make them feel lucky. The wooing and the shooing go on for a long time before the ole man can be convinced..if at all. Clearly, there’s no reasoning with a father who believes his daughters are pure as snow just because they wear salwar kameezes and do the Namaste even in song. Stereotypes and clichés are par for the course.
There’s no clear cut character definition in either the male or the female roles. Everyone behaves according to type and their antics are just not funny.
Bachchan is an aspiring rapper (a bad one at that) , Deshmukh is a professional car racer (he looked quite clueless), and Akshay with a split personality is a footballer, are in the romancing and self-deprecation, attracted by the big chance. The confounding script gets it even more complicated by inserting Urja Nagre (Jackie Shroff) a former underworld Don who appears to have a personal interest in the future of the three belles. And there’s Chunky Pandey rehashing his Aakhri Pasta with so much cheese that it grates on your nerves. The jokes and slap-stick are of the repetitive variety- the kind you have read on the internet/social media time and again.
While the women focus on looking great in beach wear and simpering at the camera the men have a ball guffawing and getting redolent about the silliest of antics. Akshay Kumar, is terribly annoying bringing into disrepute his earlier good performances in films like ‘Special 26’ and ‘OMG,’ Reitesh appears to have taken leave of his much lauded comic timing while Abhishek doesn’t even look convinced about posing with his Dad’s wax statue and seeking his blessings. The crassness with which people with handicaps are ridiculed, is just too distasteful to be humorous. Houseful 1 & 2 were monstrous and there’s doubting that they even made big money. This one is almost in the same vein as it’s predecessors. And quite unapologetic too (tokenism notwithstanding). So what’s the bet that the producers will go to town claiming this as a big hit? What comes across strongly here, is their desperation for seeking audience’ credits. It really doesn’t work though. This is not funny, it’s just stupid!
