Producer: Krishika Lulla, Vijay Ahuja, Jyoti Deshpande
Director: Rohit Dhawan
Starring: Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, Chitrangda Singh
Music: Pritam
Lyrics: Kumaar, Irshad Kamil, Amitabh Bhattacharya
Genre: Comedy
Recommended Audience: General
Film Released on: 25 November 2011
STORYLINE
Yes, it’s a film on male strippers and escorts. Yes, the son of the hugest comedy movie director in the Hindi Film Industry directs the film. Yes of course the music seems to have caught on commercially. Now there’s just one small, teensy-weensy little problem. The undisputed king of commercial comedies Akshay Kumar doesn’t seem to be a saleable actor anymore, what with his last two films Patiala House and Thank You bombing at the box office with pathetic openings for each – at least for Kumar’s standards. The film also drops on expectations further because of the fact that that maybe the film’s all crass-commercialized gloss and no logic – and maybe it’s because Rohit Dhawan’s father hasn’t been doing too well on the comedy radar thus far (Rascals and Do Knot Disturb bearing disturbing testimonies to the viewers who have dared to watch both the films). But given the director has taken the pains to learn the art of filmmaking, shouldn’t we give him the benefit of doubt? As a filmmaker myself, all I could think of when grabbing my ticket was the very same thought. Read on to find out if my generosity cost me anything...Set in London in 2009, Nick Mathur and Jignesh “Jerry” Patel are living the life – Nick is living the dream life with the dream girlfriend, all set to have a dream marriage and a dream honeymoon, just like his girlfriend Radhika (Deepika Padukone) wants. “Jerry” on the other hand just about manages to live by borrowing a lot from Nick, and is in trouble with the Social Services as he isn’t able to fulfill the basic needs of his nephew Veer. Things drastically change when recession strikes London and they’re forced to break their shells to do something different. This is when the owner of the biggest male escort agency Desi Boyz (Sanjay Dutt) makes them an offer – considering they look hot enough for women to ogle. “Jerry” grabs the offer, while Nick takes some more time, before they both realize they need a means to an end. But it is this very means that rips apart their long standing relationship as best buddies – like the Jai and Veeru, the Batman and Robin of the real life of this alternate reality.
I’m pretty sure Rohit Dhawan and his writers must have gotten the idea of making a movie by watching Dostana and Housefull back to back. Didn’t get me? Okay, in Dostana, we’ve gotten John Abraham who sends his best buddy Abhishek to a strip-party. Best buddy, check. Male strippers and escorts, check. Housefull is set in London, and stars Deepika Padukone and Akshay Kumar. Location, check. Cast (let’s mix them up a bit), check. “So what should the title be?” the question must have arised. What with “Desi Girl” being a rage, let’s just replace the “girl” with “boyz”. And to make it more relevant to the film, let’s make it the name of a male escort franchise. Convenient, isn’t it?
The story is interesting; the dramatic portions are well written and well executed by Rohit Dhawan. The pre-interval portions give out a completely different story, but the post-interval portions take a 360-degree turn when it’s not about male escorts, or recession, or male bonding anymore. It’s suddenly about falling in love, and fighting for what’s right, and the yada-yadas – you get my point. I wonder what happened to either their jobs, or getting money to survive. Akshay Kumar goes back to college – and then again I wonder how did he end up getting the money for that too. Oh, and just so you all know, the whole “telepathic” conversation between Jerry and Nick works well, but that too has been lifted off the Hollywood show How I Met Your Mother’s telepathic conversations. How unfortunate.
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