May Issue 2012

The punch and pummel of Bollywood comedy often veers towards the tacky, and Sajid Nadiadwala’sHousefull sequel is uber tacky. Premised on the most popular Bollywood theme — marriage —Housefull 2 is a 2 hour 40 minute farcical romp taglined ‘The Dirty Dozen’ and is definitely a palatial housefull starring a bunch of A-grade and B-grade Bollywood actors: Akshay Kumar, Asin Thottumkal, John Abraham, Jacqueline Fernandez, Riteish Deshmukh, Zarine Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Shazahn Padamsee, Mithun Chakraborty, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor and Boman Irani. Expect nothing more than a no-brainer and only enter the cinema house if you have the nerves to endure cringe-worthy jokes that may not sit well with those sensitive to crass and brash. But if such comedy is ok with you, then you’re sure to have a hilarious time.

It all starts with two arch-enemies, half-brothers Chintu and Daboo (the Kapoors), who hire pseudo-Italian, psychedelic suit-wearing matchmaker Akhri Pasta (Chunky Pandey) to find the richest son-in-law for each of their daughters. Enter Jai (Shreyas Talpade), a potential suitor, whose father has been insulted and dismissed by Chintu for his dark colouring. Jai vows revenge, enlists the help of his friend Jolly (Riteish Desmukh), son of Indian billionaire JD (Mithun Chakraborty), and asks him to pretend to woo Chintu’s daughter, so that he can ultimately dump her for revenge. Jolly has another idea: They decide to hire college buddy and petty-thief, Max (John Abraham), to impersonate Jolly and teach Chintu a lesson. But Max mistakenly goes to Daboo’s house instead. To right the wrong, Jai and Jolly ask another sleazy college-buddy, Sunny (Akshay Kumar), to also impersonate Jolly as a future son-in-law for Chintu. From here ensues a cacophonous mess of false identity that involves four fathers, four daughters and four future sons-in-law. The prospective fathers-in-law, Chintu and Daboo, want to meet JD and land up at his humungous stately mansion in the English countryside. Soon it is a housefull of crazy guests at JD’s home. Incidentally, JD turns out to be none other than the renowned Indian bandit, Jagga Dakoo.

“What is the happening in this house,” says the grammatically challenged Johnny Lever, the now hackneyed comedian whose antics, expressions and innuendo-ridden dialogue can be quite exasperating. However, he oversees a colourful barrage of antics as a drama of false identities keeps the reckless Jolly impersonators, their four maidens and desperate parents on their toes as marriages are arranged and lovers are revealed in JD’s massive UK mansion.

Funny and cheerfully naughty, Housefull 2 provides some mindless action sprinkled with salty language. The fantastic locales in the UK and some cool sandy beach resort somewhere, add to the movie’s aesthetic appeal. Akshay Kumar tops the list of good-natured ruffians with a signature burp-like sound that always indicates his presence. John Abraham is adequately buffed up and displays his prowess in a fight scene where he balances a pool table on his forearms. The female leads are but a bunch of eye candy and except for Asin, the rest are hopelessly stuck in the groove of smoking hot item girls. But they all look great as they gyrate in the movie’s official song ‘Right Now.’ However, the icing on the cake is Malaika Arora Khan’s sensual hip-action in ‘Anarkali Disco Chali‘— an item song coup for the filmmakers as ‘Anarkali’ now races with ‘Munni,’ ‘Sheila’ and ‘Chambeli’ in a best-of challenge.

This movie review was originally published in the May issue of Newsline.