Opinion Housefull is plain not funny
This week's release,Housefull,is what we call a 'critic proof' film.
This week’s release,Housefull,is what we call a “critic proof” film. Translated,the film has all the ingredients to unleash the critics’ inner Dr Evil,yet the film is bound to make money. Since we live in an era where everything sells in the name of entertainment,films like Housefull always end up finding an audience. Critics know it even when they review the film but they have a job to do which entails appreciating a film on its cinematic & aesthetic values.
A critic never tells a filmmaker how to make a movie; he judges the one they have made. It’s a tricky relationship — the one between the filmmaker and the critic. Neither is obliged to love the other but mutual respect is important. Housefull director Sajid Khan has gone on record to say that he doesn’t make films for the critics but for the audience. To hammer that point across,Khan refrained from having a press show for his film. Instead,the media was given tickets for the film’s first day show. Fair enough.
I chose to buy my own ticket (a steep Rs 400 if you please) because I take immense pride in being “just a member of the audience”. So I paid for my own ticket and I remember the price of the ticket. That says something,doesn’t it? Khan doesn’t even try to tell us a fresh tale. The story (credited to the film’s producer,Sajid Nadiadwala) is all over the place.
Let me try and do an imdb.com on the movie. Like the movie website,let me list the plot keywords and you can know the entire story of the film. Here we go: loveable loser,bad luck,unlucky in love,attempt suicide,rescue by a girl,true love,mistaken identity,solving friends’ problems,one house,girl’s strict brother,comedy of errors,laughter gas.
For a comedy to work,you need gags and Housefull has them by the dozen. But Khan forgot one vital dictum of making a comedy: “Thou shalt never give the audience time to think between the gags”. Also the gags and the jokes are same old,same old. The entire Boman Irani homophobic act was trying too hard to be like the Kantaben track of Kal Ho Naa Ho. When SRK & Saif did it,it was ‘new funny’. Then we had Abhishek-John’s Dostana which was ‘risqué funny’. Sorry Khan,but Akshay-Riteish doing the same routine is now plain ‘not funny’. Since we are on the topic of Karan Johar productions,Lillete Dubey’s nympho act was too reminiscent of her take-off on Bipasha Basu’s Jism act in Kal Ho Naa Ho.
The film has a strong racist undertone too. The bit about the African American baby was unnecessary. More so since the baby plot was forgotten conveniently after the gag. The farsan loving Gujarati father and Santa Banta Sardarji jokes are simply yawn-inducing.
But the most offensive bit was the portrayal of animals in the film. If Khan’s idea of funny is having a parrot sucked off by a vacuum cleaner then wonder what is his idea of gory? The tiger gag tried to be The Hangover but failed miserably. Don’t even get me started about the monkey slap fest. It’s not funny to see superstar Akshay Kumar get slapped by a monkey time and again. Sure it shows Akshay’s sporting spirit to agree to this gag but really,it didn’t do anything interesting. In fact,this one bit made me cringe. And again,I’m talking purely as a ticket-buying audience member.
The climax that entailed releasing laughter gas in Buckingham Palace is so lame that I’m convinced it wasn’t even written in the script. It sounds more like an on-set joke that Khan must have cracked. I can imagine the conversation: “Let’s have everyone laughing in the film,even the characters who are upset and angry with each other. We don’t have to resolve anything. Let’s just release laughter gas so that everyone starts laughing. That’ll be so entertaining.”
Sadly,Khan forgot to install laughter gas cylinders in the movie halls. I could really do with some laughs. Housefull just didn’t do it for me. And I say this as an audience member.
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