Synopsis – A father doesn’t want his three daughters to get married. Now, it’s up to three men to try to and convince the father that they’re a good fit for his daughters
My Take – This is not the first time (nor the last) when we will see the audience and the critics divided over a comedy film, as far as I can remember the earlier films of this Sajid Nadiawala produced franchise had a similar response. While the critics are busy ripping apart the third instalment of this no brainer franchise, the producers are walking towards the bank laughing (the film is the second biggest opener of the year & actor Akshay Kumar’s second highest). if you have seen the two earlier installments of this franchise, you already know that is purely a ‘leave-your-brains-behind’ affair. And, if you are looking for even a bit of sense, then its your fault. Its best for thinkers to stay away from this film as it promises to be a mind numbing entertainer only for those who are ready to leave their brains at home. The Housefull franchise is known for being a crowd pleaser with no apparent regard for the intelligence of the audience. It is just not supposed to make sense. You go to the theatre willingly, spend your money willingly knowing fully well what’s in store, and then come out laughing (or not?). This third addition to this franchise, has sibling writers of the earlier films Farhad-Sajid taking on the directorial duties (after their lackluster Entertainment) from Sajid Khan presumably due to his back to back commercial failures in the form of Humshakals & Himmatwala, while retaining key players such as Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Chunkey Pandey, Jacqueline Fernandez (she featured in a song of the first film) and Boman Irani. The new additions include Abhiskek Bachchan, Nargis Fakri, Lisa Haydon and Jackie Shroff. So when the third part of a successful comedy franchise comes out, it fills you with hope that it will be a laugh buster. Does it stick to the formula of the franchise and is it funny? Do the new directors of the franchise – Sajid-Farhad deliver? Of course they do! From casting to dialogues to locations, the flick is a finely woven piece of cinema where one loose end is easily overshadowed. The loose end, here is in reference to the plot. Well, Its weak but, hey, what else did you expect?
This film was never meant to preach a message, but instead tickle your almost dead funny bone with a bunch of ridiculous physical comedy from its lead male actors. The story follows a wannabe footballer Sandy (Akshay Kumar), a wannabe rapper Bunty (Abhishek Bachchan) and a wannabe formula race driver Teddy (Riteish Deshmukh) who in order to solve their financial troubles want to get hitched to Ganga (Jacqueline Fernandez), Saraswati (Nargis Fakhri), and Jamuna (Lisa Haydon), the three daughters of a billionaire Gujarati NRI Batook Patel (Boman Irani). Due to a hidden agenda Batook doesn’t want his daughters to get married and uses his friend a wannabe chef Akhri Pasta (Chunkey Pandey) to pretend as an astrologer to convince the girls of an ongoing curse related to walking, talking and seeing. However, the daughters manage to introduce the trio to their father by asking them to fake the disabilities. So Sandy becomes a cripple, Bunty becomes a mute, and Teddy pretends to be blind and move into the mansion. But things take a turn when a rehabilitated Don Urja Nagre (Jackie Shroff) enters the already full house. So you get the idea how the jokes are formed and what ensues further in the plot, along with few slightly unnecessary side arcs. As expected, the premise just like the earlier films is an over the top insensitive comedy of errors. When disability is a joke, why should skin colour be left behind? Batuk has three maidservants who are all black, and who also play their part in adding to the chaos that is a staple of the franchise. Writer-Director Duo Sajid-Farhad have packaged the film as a slapstick comedy, with a joke or hilarity in almost every scene in order to shoehorn the audience’s attention from the obviously missing sensible plot. And they have done a decent job in painting each character with necessary comic caricature paramount for the movie’s engagement. There are some references to real life as well where the writers take a jibe at some of the leads that adds amusements for example Bunty gets personally offended when one of the henchmen knocks of Aishwarya’s wax statue. But there are also instances where one might feel like telling the makers “If it worked once, it doesn’t mean it will work the next instant also.” Some of the jokes featured in the film might bring a mild remembrance of those found in social media. All the elements of the Housefull formula are in place—jokes about the differently abled, demeaning people of colour, female characters who are bimbos and a father whom everyone is trying to dupe. Although some jokes, especially the ones involving the heroines translating English puns into Hindi, are unfunny to the core. But, the humour works the most in favor of Akshay Kumar‘s character, who suffers from dual-personalities. Each character here has a mode, and Kumar’s is that he turns into his alter ego, Sundi, every time he hears the word “Indian”. No one subscribing to this brand of humour would care for an explanation, but the writers felt the need to give one—Kumar’s character was subjected to racism when he was a kid, hence the word “Indian” brings out the worst in him.
Even though this starts of in an uneven manner, the Sundi routine ends up stealing the show. Followed closely by Deshmukh’s slip off tongue disorder, which he knocks off well whenever it happens. Even the always so cool Jackie Shroff gets to speak in acronyms (WTF is Wednesday, Thursday, Friday; ASAP becomes As Slow As Possible). LOL! As suspected, the biggest weakness of the film is its predictability, same old template of its prequels and dim-witted comedy which wont work for every one. And why do Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati speak in American accents despite being raised in England? They are so poor at Hindi that they translate idioms literally. For example, “Calm down” is turned into “Naukri down” and “Aap table ke liye aaye ho na?” is their version of “Are you comfortable?” The joke gets old quickly. It doesn’t really help that the girls are little more than window dressing in Farhad-Sajid’s film and most of the hard work is left up to the three male leads. Akshay Kumar once again makes it clear that his comic timing is a class apart from any of his contemporaries. Most of the punches from Akshay‘s side weren’t his lines, but came in the form of expression. Oh boy, he was a laugh riot. Being familiar with the tone of the earlier films, he made sure that the audiences get a little more this time. Yes, he is the soul of this film. He seems to be having the time of his life (a break from comedy movies must have helped. We have seen Abhishek do justice to his comic roles before and here he pulls off yet another comic character like the one in Bol Bachchan. Riteish has his own charm. He manages to do all the nonsensical stuff and gets away by making us roll over with his antics. Nargis, Lisa and Jacqueline keep the glamour quotient sky-high throughout the run-time. The very adorable Jacqueline gets the best deal out of three & plays her part well. Jackie Shroff, Boman Irani and Chunkey Pandey bring life to their characters with splendid performances. Watching this film in the cinema proved one point – audience is the ‘king’ no matter what as the packed cinema hall was laughing their asses off throughout the whole 140 minute run time. On the whole, ‘Housefull 3’ continues the mindless hilarity of its franchise by being a slapstick, clichéd, dumb, offensive full-on family entertainer. I am all in for smart writing but in this scorching heat, I think its good to give intelligent writing, smart puns and logical gags a break.
