As expected, the trailer of Housefull 3 gives much of the film away. A rich Gujju businessman in London, Batuk Patel (Boman Irani), doesn’t want to marry off his three daughters because of the curse of broken marriages running in his extended family. All hell breaks loose when he learns that all the three sanskari girls – Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati (Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri and Lisa Haydon) – have a boyfriend each: A car racer called Teddy (Riteish Deshmukh), a rapper called Bunty (Abhishek Bachchan) and a footballer called Sandy (Akshay Kumar).
The boys do manage to get an entry into the girls’ mansion, but by playing blind, mute and crippled. The confusion gets confounded when this role-playing has to get interchanged. The blind has to turn mute, the mute has to become crippled and the one playing crippled has to turn blind. All for the sake of the Indian Don, Urja Nagare (Jackie Shroff) to whom Batuk owes a royal sum of Rs. 5,000 crores. Well, there is more, but that will be telling it all.
So, with the story out of the way, all that’s left to follow in the film is whether the situations and gags are funny enough or not. Unfortunately, they aren’t, and a morning show in Mumbai hardly had anyone in the audience smiling, leave ROFLing away.
No one would go looking for logic in the Housefull franchisee, but inspired madness and sublime silliness is definitely worth demanding. No such luck here. What you get are three silly, giggly girls, who attempt to bring the house down by some inane, literal translations of English words to Hindi. So calm ( kaam in Hindi) down becomes ‘ naukri neeche’ , hang out is ‘ latakte hain’ .
The phrase, apple of the eye is turned into ‘ aankh ka seb’ .
One can’t quite go looking for political correctness in such a film. But Housefull 3 , doesn’t know where it wants to stand on issues. No wonder, after cracking many a joke at the physically challenged, its attempt to redeem itself in the end seems half-baked and forced.
The film’s stand on racism is also just as confused. Initially, Indians and the blacks are seen at the same end of the racial slurs, yet you have the Gujju empire of Batuk Patel populated entirely by black maids and distasteful references made to their wombs.
And not to forget the play with maa and behen in the lyrics. What are these songs trying to say?
Askhay Kumar, who plays a footballer suffering from dissociative identity disorder, hams with abandon in two long sequences where he has to swing between his two selves.
He also gets to the funniest line: “Such huge (Rs. 5000 crore) loans are not taken by individuals but nations”.
Abhishek Bachchan has a natural flair for comedy, but here he is toned down to the extent of becoming lacklustre. And can we please see him with an identity of his own rather than being burdened with his illustrious surname? He is certainly more than a “ bade baap ka beta ”. Even on the silver screen.
It’s left to Jackie Shroff then, gun in hand and blade hidden inside his mouth, who displays more charisma than the rest of the cast put together. Wish there was more of him.
namrata joshi
Housefull 3
Genre:Comedy
Director: Sajid-Farhad
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Lisa Haydon, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff
Storyline:Three men try to convince a father who doesn’t want his three daughters to get married
Bottomline:Half-baked and forced
