Cinemaah

London Mein Dhobi Ghaat

Sajid Khan professes to be a fan of old Bollywood films, particularly the bad ones, and his little ‘homages’ are strewn throughout Housefull2.

The film, with a typical confusion confounded plot could really have been a sparkling farce, if Khan’s treatment didn’t suffer from the odd symptom that afflicts most Bollywood comedies—loudness and crudity.  Actors are made to overact, screech, make faces and push up the volume of the gag that would probably have worked if they had played normal. If the situation is funny and the lines are witty, there is no need for everyone to shout ‘look at me,  ain’t I hilarious.’

Nobody would object to a mindless comedy, if it was done well.  But since Housefull was a hit, and audiences have proved to be woefully passive when making their ‘timepass’ choices,  Sajid Khan can wilfully pass off this excessive silliness as entertainment.

He has lined up a cast of four ‘heroes’ Sunny (Akshay Kumar), Max (John Abraham), Jolly (Riteish Deshmukh), Jai (Shreyas) and four skimpily dressed, over made-up, interchangeable bimbettes opposite them.  Randhir and Rishi Kapoor play half brothers Dabboo and Chintu who hate each other. Each wants his daughter to marry the richest man in London—most of the mayhem takes place in a stately mansion in London, turning the lovely city into “dhobi ghaat” – a character in the film says that.  The Empire strike back, eh?  (Don’t even ask what they do to Prince Charles—Khan has a thing about British Royalty, Housefull had its climax set in Buckingham Palace).

Jai’s father is insulted by Chintu Kapoor for being dark and probably not the real father of his fair son, and has a heart attack.  To take revenge,  Jai plans to dangle his rich friend Jolly as a prospective son-in-law and then break off the match on the wedding day. The girl’s feelings are, of course, not to be taken into account. 

But Jolly, who is scared of his father, the billionaire JD (Mithun Chakraborty) refuses, so they plan to send a fake Jolly, but their man Max lands up at Dabboo’s house next door; another Jolly has to be found for Chintu and Sunny comes into the picture.  With a far-fetched plot contrivance they all land up at JD’s castle and misunderstandings pile up.

People will find a few laughs—like when a character has his butt chomped on by an alligator, since this is the level of humour.  But if audiences just want a few giggles-- and it’s their money after all--  Housefull 2 serves the purpose.  But every such film takes away the efforts made by films like Kahaani towards improving the standards of the Bollywood mainstream.