Housefull – How big a loser are you?

Cast – Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Arjun Rampal, Boman Irani, Jiah Khan, Chunky Pandey

Direction – Sajid Khan

Akshay Kumar, depressed with his life, swims for a very long time, until he gets tired and tries to commit suicide by drowning himself. Deepika Padukone, just like Clint Eastwood in Spaghetti Western films, comes out of nowhere, lifts him up and carries him towards the shore that is some miles away. And we call Akshay Kumar a Khiladi!!!!

The film starts with the most hilarious disclaimer of the decade. Sajid Khan mentions the names of 5 very important directors in Bollywood who have influenced him to direct films. And that includes Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Heyy babyy and Hrishikesh Mukherjee? HouseFull and Hrishikesh Mukherjee? Ohhhh, that was joke as the film is supposed to be a comedy. Such is the humor in the film that you yourself would need to find out the humorous moments if you want to laugh as the film hardly is humorous.

This is hardly an Akshay Kumar kind of comedy. If you want to watch Akshay Kumar kind of comedy, I think you are better off watching Jaane Kahaan Se Aayi Hai. He manages to make you laugh more in his two and half minutes special appearance than this two and half hours long film. Being a fan of his comic timings and his work in films like Mr. and Mrs Khiladi, Garam Masala, Bhool Bhulaiya, this one surely is a disappointment. The film mainly belongs to the ‘Timepass’ genre films which Sajid or Farah makes. While Farah tries to spoof The Matrix, Karz, Madhumati, Youtube videos in her films and manages to get some laughs, Sajid Khan straightaway copies them with no intention of even spoofing if he can’t get original. He plays the game of wife swapping in the film, something we just saw 6 months ago in All The Best. The game is not even half as funny in Housefull as in All The Best.

Five years ago, filmmakers in India started to feel that a film that does not have the King Khan has to have an item song to make it a hit. The latest trend in ‘Timepass-Filmmaking’ says a film has to have some gay humor in it. Housefull tries having both of them. And since it is a Sajid Khan film, he does not even try putting in efforts in the item song. Instead he simply took up an old Bollywood hit number and remixed it. Though it is wonderfully sung song by Mika, IMO, who manages to keep the craziness alive in the song, the video is very disappointing, thanks to the Arjun Rampal. For most of the film Arjun Rampal plays an angry man with one expression on his face, and for once he was asked to enjoy and he ends up ruining a song, How can one fail to get the right expressions in that song? It should have come out naturally given that song is so crazy. The video really missed the craziness I was expecting it to have.

Chetan Bhagat novels have the lead character as a loser who ends up having a girlfriend. Akshay Kumar plays a even bigger loser in the film, who carries a background song saying “He is such a loser” along with him, and brings bad luck to everyone who comes within 10 meters of his range; and ends up visiting Macau, London, Italy, attends a party in Buckingham place, stayed in one of the biggest house in London, has a very good friend in Riteish Deshmukh and 3 girlfriends namely Maliaka Arora Khan, Jiah Khan and Deepika Padukone. God, make me a loser too (preferably even bigger)!!!But this is a comedy. And as I said you need to find the jokes in the film yourself, if you want to laugh, as it only has hidden or unintentional jokes placed by Sajid Khan. Another example is the ‘Brada’ scene. The scene has Akshay Kumar leaving the house of Riteish Deshmukh and Lara Dutta, after arranging the house that he made a mess of, and replaces the Brada (parrot) which went inside the vacuum cleaner and died with a new Brada(tiger). The humor again does not lie in a parrot being replaced by a tiger or the scene, but the fact that he was leaving the house without even notifying Riteish and Lara that he has left a tiger.

For what actually was good in the film, I will have to start talking about Raavan and Raajneeti promos that were shown in the beginning. Apart from that, Chunky Pandey for once did entertain me in his extended special appearance. Though, he was sometimes irritating, but considering the other things in the film, his role and performance was better than the others. Lara Dutta and Riteish Deshmukh did act well, esp. in the ‘Brada’ scene. Boman Irani was wasted in this role. I agree with one of the critics (I think it was Raja Sen), that it is sad to see some fatherly figure like him to get slapped by younger actors. That is seriously not HRISHIKESH MUKHERJEE kind of humor!!! It was really sad to see him getting slapped in the film and play the role of Kanta Ben (Kal Ho Naa Ho) in the film. Lillete Dubey once more in her life plays the role of an old lustful woman. Deepika Padukone once again proves that she can’t act. So does Jiah Khan. While one of the songs copies the location of ‘Khuda Jaane’, the one with Jiah Khan is a mix of “Bebo Main Bebo” and “Yeh Mera Dil”.

The film has a watchable first half with a ‘Brada’ scene and Chunky Pandey act, and disappoints badly in the second half by having gay jokes, wife swapping act of All The Best and Arjun Rampal spoiling ‘Apni toh Jaise Taise’, and keeps going down to make climax the worst part of the film. I still have to find out the underlying humor planned by Sajid Khan in that scene. Was it Arjun Rampal winning an award for a brave soldier just like he won the National Award? Might Be. 🙂

Karthik Calling Karthik (2010) – Movie Review

Cast – Farhan Akhtar, Deepika Padukone

Direction – Vijay Lalwani

Every great magic trick consists of three parts or acts. The first part is called “The Pledge”. The magician shows you something ordinary: a deck of cards, a bird or a man. He shows you this object. Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see if it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course… it probably isn’t. The second act is called “The Turn”. The magician takes the ordinary something and makes it do something extraordinary. Now you’re looking for the secret… but you won’t find it, because of course you’re not really looking. You don’t really want to know. You want to be fooled. But you wouldn’t clap yet. Because making something disappear isn’t enough; you have to bring it back. That’s why every magic trick has a third act, the hardest part, the part we call “The Prestige”.

– The Prestige

Similar to magic tricks, a suspenseful story or play or a film has 3 parts generally termed as Act 1, Act 2 and Act 3, and having similar significance as the 3 parts of the magic trick. How about modifying the meaning of Act 3 a bit and instead of solving everything for the audience, for a change leaving it unsolved. I think it is better to leave some mysteries unsolved instead of ending them badly. Though the general audience may get disappointed because they want closure and mysteries to be solved so that they don’t think about the film at all, but not all mysteries in life get solved. IMO, Karthik Calling Karthik was just that kind of a film that would have worked better for ME if it was unsolved instead of ending in the ridiculous twist that was shown. I was hoping against hope that the director really would not reveal the twist and leave the ending open or something, because the way he was moving the story forward, I knew, the twist won’t be as exciting as the buildup was. But like I said, that would not have been generally appreciated .

The film is about Karthik (Farhan Akhtar) who blames himself for the loss of his brother in childhood and can’t concentrate and focus on his life and tries to commit suicide until he gets a phone call. Karthik Calling Karthik is a confused film, and is a clear example of a the director did not know how to carry the story forward after having thought of a brilliant idea. The film could have been a lot better if it was made into a horror thriller kind of a film just like 13 B. Instead the director chose to take the story forward in a very relaxed manner. A few scenes in the film could have really worked better if it had the horror touch to it. The concept suited the horror genre a lot. But in KCK, most of the scenes instead of giving a thrill, look more like an unintentional comedy. Like when Shefali Shah receives the phone call, I ended up laughing instead of being thrilled. I really think the film should have had that 13 B kind of touch to it.

Though I say the idea of Karthik Calling Karthik was brilliant, I must say it is very much inspired from Fight Club (David Fincher), just that we don’t see the alter ego of Karthik in this film; instead we hear his voice over the phone. I won’t call it a remake of Fight Club, it is hardly that, but yes the concept seems to be inspired. A major part of the film in the second half reminded me of No Smoking where the protagonist tries to run away from himself. But unlike No Smoking this film is not a surreal one and a confusing one.

Deepika Padukone might have looked hot yet again, but her performance was again disappointing. But more than her, it is the character she plays that disappoints. Her character in this film was more or less the same as her character in Love Aaj Kal, only a lot less important this time. She did not have much scope like Farhan in the film and all she had to do is look good on screen and dance to Uff Teri Adaa. A few scenes required a bit of acting, but she did not perform well IMO. Karthik Calling Karthik is another film where the female lead had hardly any substantial part to play in the film. With the plot mainly based on Farhan and the phone calls he gets, Deepika’s role was not given much importance. I am not saying her character was completely unneeded, but it could have been developed in a better way.

Farhan Akhtar tries to do a Surinder Sahni in the start. He plays a common man working in an office and tries to copy the mannerisms of Surinder Sahni until he goes through a complete makeover. Sadly enough, Farhan doesn’t have the charm of Shah Rukh Khan to carry off Surinder Sahni like the latter did. But once he goes through that makeover, he plays the confident character quite well.

In the end, I can only say I am disappointed with this film because the film could have been a lot more interesting and thrilling. Right now it is nothing but 2 hours of Air Conditioned Room and a Sofa Seat for the ticket price.