Housefull 2

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 6th April, 2012
Time : 160 minutes
Director & Co-Writer : Sajid Khan; Writer : Tushar; Music : Sajid-Wajid
Starring : Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Ritesh Deshmukh, Shreyas Talpade, Asin, Jacqueline Fernandez, Zarine Khan, Shazahn Padamsee, Mithun Chakraborty, Boman Irani, Rishi Kapoor, Randhir Kapoor, Johnny Lever

Two out of ten jokes will make you laugh. Three will make you cringe. The story is non-existent, making guest appearances only to fill in the blanks between gags. It stretches on for too long, has too many improbable twists and is a tough one to watch in one sitting.

The two families of Rishi Kapoor and Randhir Kapoor, hate each other. They each vow they will get their daughter married off to a wealthier person. Though neither of the daughters (Asin & Jacqueline) are of a meek mentality, they seem to go along. Two blokes (John & Akshay) pretending to be the well known son of a prominent businessman (Mithun) land up at the two houses. Despite the women being internet savvy, they never cotton on to this, neither do their dads, who with pound notes in their eyes, rush into an engagement.

Along with the bonafide son (Ritesh), his friend (Shreyas) and their respective love interests (Zarine and Shazahn), everyone now camps at Mithun’s house, accompanied by Mithun’s man Friday (Johnny Lever) and best friend (Boman Irani).

Like one of the Manmohan Desai’s masala entertainers, this one tries to pack everything into it – fight sequences, best friends turned enemies, cousin sisters turned enemies, brothers turned enemies, real son vs illegit son, a dacoit turned businessman, a villainous father, a father who suffers a heart attack, a female midget, a dancer brought in to create even more trouble and a marriage agent who is extremely irritating yet seems to be the only one around.

Funny moments include Ranjit’s cameo at the end, especially with the ‘beauty’ changing to ‘beti’, Asin practicing Akshay’s leer, Johnny Lever’s imitation of each of the heroes towards the end and several other moments of unintentional humour.

You walk in expecting the worst and at least story wise, the film lives up to the expectation.

PS : There is a clear division in our country - lots of people in the hall were loving the movie, laughing at the jokes. Equally, a lot were groaning with their heads in their hands

PS2 : Am not sure how this got away with a U/A rating, according to me, given the kind of material in the film (lewd jokes, crude references and songs full of flimsily clad females), this is unsuitable for anyone below fifteen.

Thank You

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 8th April, 2011
Time : 140 minutes
Director, Co-writer : Anees Bazmee; Writer : Rajiv Kaul, Rajan Agarwal, Ikram Akhtar, ; Music : Pritam
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Irrfan Khan, Bobby Deol, Suneil Shetty, Sonam Kapoor, Rimi, Celina Jaitley

A film which purportedly has an anti-infidelity message but uses that an excuse for skin show, crass sexist jokes, lewd songs and is only occasionally brought to life by some funny lines by Irrfan, this is yet another example of a mindless film that passes off as entertainment

Suneil Shetty, Bobby Deol and Irrfan are compulsively unfaithful and also happen to be colleagues. Their wives, Celina, Sonam and Rimi are either unaware or gullibly fall for their hubby’s silly excuses or gang up to make their hubby pay for his sins. They also hire an investigator, Akshay, to help them nail their errant spouses and he turns out to have an agenda of his own…

I liked the fact that it stuck to its storyline and apart from one silly subplot about a ‘King’, didn’t deviate from its main plot point. I liked that Irrfan and Rimi genuinely were funny, he in his deadpan way and she in her over the top, garrulous way

The rest is eminently forgettable including some terrible songs, very uninspired acting (specially Akshay and Sonam), stale jokes and generally poor taste. Even the background score seems inspired by the Mask and in one case, the ever reliable Mission Impossible theme tune.

I didn’t walk into this with great expectations and none were met. There were a few laughs from the sparse audience watching the film so it did connect at some level. It is a lot better than films like CC2C and Kambakkht Ishq, though that is starting at an abysmally low base level…