Mubarakan movie review: A long, maudlin harangue on family values

Then there’s Arjun Kapoor as a set of twins, one in Punjab, the other in London. The only way to differentiate between them is the degree of bumbling idiocy displayed, and Kapoor does a good line in that department.  Add in Anil Kapoor as the ‘maama/chacha’ shuttling between the two boys. I’m always happy to watch Kapoor because he gets with the plan so fast, and once in a while, does a nice throw-away dialogue.

Pretty girls Ileana D’Cruz, Neha Sharma and Athiya Shetty show up, the former getting in a line or two. Sharma plays a Muslim girl (‘haaye haaye’) in love with one of the brawny Punjabi ‘mundas’, and you cheer, just a little, because hey, who knows, we may be in for some inter-religious amity. And a comedy of errors is set into motion, revolving around reluctant grooms and runaway brides, and a good Punjabi ‘praa’ (Pavan Malhotra) and his equally loving ‘bainji’ (Shah).

So far, I’m not wincing. And then the post-interval set is upon us, and suddenly, the film’s funny bone gets lost. It becomes a long, maudlin harangue on family values and good sisters and brothers, while slipping in a few distasteful jokes about wives and women. And that Muslim girl angle? It is just a ruse, and a total cop-out.

A character says wearily: ‘kab khatam hoga yeh?’ And that’s the end of that.