David Dhawan never cared to offer anything cerebral and here again he sticks to his crazy carnival with his trusted bunch of jokers. The only difference is that he has changed his head clown. The aging war horse Govinda gives way to Dhawan’s slim and trim son Varun and the loony humour gets a new circus. It is like when the critics asked Dhawan to come of age, he changed the game by reducing the age of his hero. Varun brings with him a certain cockiness and six packs but for the rest of the character sketch (if something like that in Dhawan’s films), he copies Govinda’s mannerisms. As for the script Dhawan reworks the Gharwali Baharwali formula as Bangalore-wali and Bangkok-wali and spices it up with his trademark quirks to generate comedy out of silly confusion, borrowed liberally from Telugu hit Kandireega.
There is a don whose voice echoes because he was born in a hill station. One of his cronies talks in the form of film titles and then there is one who whistles because a bullet has got stuck in his head. Anupam Kher, Shakti Kapoor, Saurabh Shukla and Rajpal yadav have spent enough time with Dhawan to know how to play these madcap characters with sincerity! Love it or call it over the top, it is his universe and here even idols get to banter.
Varun plays mischievous Seenu, who falls head over heals for Sunaina (Ileana D’Cruz) not realising that she is already being pursued by a local policeman Angad (Arunoday Singh). When Angad tries to bully him, Seenu counters him with wit and valour. However, in Alisha (Nargis Fakhri), Angad finds an ace. Alisha also likes Seenu and being the daughter of a Bangkok-based don (Anupam Kher) she can get what she desires. Angad offers Seenu to the don in lieu of Sunaina and it spirals a gag fest. Dhawan has used his scissors well but the word play gets dreary even within two hours of running time. Suspension of disbelief is stretched beyond belief. There is no similarity between the skin tone and body type of Ileana and Nargis, still Dhawan manages to create confusion between an apple and an orange. There is a dialogue in the film where Saurabh Shukla says “Don’t go by the words, feel the emotion”. The line sounds hollow because it is the emotion that was once crucial to Dhawan’s stories is missing here. There is gloss, glamour and gags but he shows no gumption to change. He has cut down on political incorrectness and double meaning dialogues but you can still see Varun flaunting two fuel dispensers at a petrol station during a song with Nargis and Ileana.
Varun has got the package of a hero and he exploits it well. He gets to dance, fight and flirt and is easy to watch but all along you sense that he is trying to be in someone else’s shoes. Ileana provides him cute company and Nargis plays the dumb doll act like a bimbette not realising that bimbo doesn’t know that she is mentally vacuous.
Genre: Romantic Comedy
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Ileana D’Cruz, Nargis Fakhri, Arunoday Singh, Anupam Kher, Rajpal Yadav.
Plot: The hero has to save his girl from a bully and himself from the daughter of a don.
Bottomline: An innocuous entertainer that appeals in parts.
