Fool n Final

There’s a diamond in Dubai. It’s blue, it’s big, and it’s on the Most Wanted list of a whole bunch of people: gangsters, goons, small-time crooks, con artists. A one-line story can become a great caper film. Look at what David Dhawan managed to do with roughly the same assortment before he got sucked into sentiment. Look also at Priyadarshan’s best, where he flings his slender plot into a mix of crazies and coots, and lays them over with non-stop gags.

In Fool n Final, you have to wait till after the interval, before you can start chortling. That’s because nothing a trio of small-time chors (mama Paresh, bhaanji Ayesha, and loverboy Shahid) can do, when they are by themselves, to make you crack a smile. There’s also nothing particularly hilarious about another threesome (bade bhai Om Puri, bhaabhi Sharmila, and chhota praa Sunny), who live in something called India Colony, which looks so much like a set that you feel bad for the designer. It’s somnolence time, folks.

It’s only when other certified funnymen join them, that you feel the movie settling down. And Paresh perking up. Chunkey, with a fixed smirk and rolling eyes and a couple of very visible gold teeth, and Johnny, with a fairly accurate Mallu accent, manage to drum up some laughs. So does, surprisingly, Viveik, who never once steps out of character (playing a good-hearted badmaash, with a, sob, polio-stricken younger brother, minus love interest). This, after Company, and Omkara, is his best turn. You keep looking to Vijay Raaz to provide relief too, but he is wasted, as is, sadly Om Puri.

As for the rest, they might as well not have been there. Sameera (good girl on the run from bad guys) is so peripheral that she could have been left out, without making any difference to the movie. Ayesha is as Ayesha has been in too many roles: bubbly, chirpy, and too much pink paint on the cheeks. And really, Sharmila can do better than this. Much better.