By Sadhogopal Ram:
Nothing fascinates me in a film (regardless of the genre) more than that rare combination of a well-told story with finely-crafted characters. A craft which, although seems to be flourishing and gaining new depths in “underground” cinema, is surely on the verge of extinction, at least in mainstream Bollywood. The Hindi film industry has gone through numerous cinematic transformations in which it has given us movies that are true gems, but then it has also given us an uncountable number of the most ridiculous movies ever made in India. The sad part is that those ridiculous movies are the ones that have become the whole idea and identity of Bollywood. Housefull 2 is one of those ridiculously cheesy films, where you don’t know whether you should cringe in embarrassment or laugh at the cheesiest of dialogues that hold the stamina to even make a few rotten corpses roll in their graves.
Sample this:Â “Sirf bhokhne se kutta kamina nahi ho jata”
Housefull 2 stars a plethora of actors and actresses, each cheesier than the other and ‘bad-copy’ of themselves. It has Akshay Kumar starring as Sunny (Jolly), Asin Thottumkal as Henna, John Abraham as Max (Jolly), Jacqueline Fernandez as Bobby, Ritesh Deshmukh as Jwala (Jolly), Zarine Khan as JLo, Shreyas Talpade as Jai (Jolly). Now what this “Jolly” business is is up to you to find out. I ain’t telling you all nothing about it. The list of stars then continues with Shazahn Padamsee as Parul, Mithun Chakraborty as JD a.k.a Jagga Daaku, Rishi Kapoor as Chintu, Randhir Kapoor as Dalbir Singh (Daboo), Boman Irani as Batook Patel, Chunky Pandey as Aakhri Pasta, Johnny Lever as Vishwas Patil, Neelu Kohli as Dolly Kapoor, Ranjeet as Dr Ranjeet (The rapist), Virendra Saxena as Mr. Babani and Malaika Arora Khan in a special appearance.
Phew! That was some task. I just hope I got it right though, do not want to anger Sajid Khan over such petty issue.
Coming to the plot, which is so, so cheesy and leaks with such ludicrous amount of cheapness that it makes Housefull 2Â a blatantly inauthentic film and very, very unpleasant to watch. Although, it has its moments, thrown randomly here and there, which do tickle the funny bone once in a while. Housefull 2, however, fails miserably when it comes to its story-line. But then I doubt that the makers of Housefull 2 had any intention of making a film with a “story”. Right from the start, the film is overloaded with stalwarts like Randhir and Rishi Kapoor NOT delivering dialogous but howling and hackling them, as if they are trying to actually flush them out. They play brothers in Housefull 2, living in the UK, who dream of marrying their daughters off to the wealthiest family in UK. And the rest of the plot is for you to figure out (i.e. if you actually manage to find it in there, and if you do then do let me know. Please).
To talk about acting — well, the less I talk about it, the better off I’ll be. Sample this: in the entire film John, with that constant expression on his face, appears as if he has constipation and is really trying too hard to not poop in his pants, and Ritesh’s expressions seem like that rape victim whose ‘modesty’ has been robbed off and yet being the one who is being made to feel guilty about it. Akshay does try to bring some honesty in his performance and deserves a bit of praise for making the film come alive for a moment or two, along with the disco-dancer Mithun Da, who packs some punch with his standalone performance, well supported by Johnny Lever as his side-kick, but their good is undone by the rest of the cast. The overall performace of the star cast of Housefull 2 is just mediocre.
The only slight relief that Housefull 2 offers from its mediocre splendour is in its peppy song numbers. They lift the mood and manage to keep sleep away while making you tap your leg to their beats.
A word before I end this review: A film is only worth any accolades if it doesn’t take its audience or their intellect for granted and offers them escape from reality. Any form of art is in a way an escape from the realities of our life, but doing art or being associated with it for the whole reason to find an escape is cowardice. Films that do not hit us, films that do not make us think, films that do not make us react to them, are a failure in their totality. Therefore, Housefull 2 is not a film but a failure. But then these are my personal views, what appeals to me as a viewer might not appeal to others and vice-versa.
Final word, all I would say is that even after all its short comings and ridiculousness, Housefull 2 is still watchable. Take your family and friends along for some “wham bam thank you sir & ma’am” time. It’s doesn’t have any food for thought though, just 2 hours and 30 minutes of popcorn-munching and diet coke sipping escape from the chaos and humidity of Bombay.
I now leave you with a video of the hit song We Speak No Americano, a song by Australian duo Yolanda Be Cool and producer DCUP, which the makers of Housefull 2 so inconsiderably ripped and made into the lame Paapa toh band bajaye.
This post was originally published at the author’s blog, ARTH.
Sadhogopal Ram is a Poet… Writer… a Thinker… and a pigheaded ArthÅ›Ästri. He likes to rant on a wide variety of topics, Society and People being two of his all-time favourites.