Shameless director, Shameful film, HOUSEFULL theatres

Housefull

Director : Sajid Khan

Writing Credits : Milap Zaveri, Sajid Khan, Vibha Singh

Music : Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy

Cast : Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Jiah Khan, Boman Irani, Arjun Rampal

What goes for the film : A poor sense of humour plaguing a majority of audience

What goes against the audience : Wonder what…they’re clapping their way to glory.

Cinemaa Opinion : Dishonest, incompetent & juvenile. Scroll down for a detailed review.

It was after quite a few weeks that I got to see a movie with a considerable number of people in the theatre. And boy…was I happy about it? Sadly, the good news ends here and the bad begins. The bad news being that Housefull is running to full houses. And the multiplexes have gone full throttle on it. The one where I saw it has 3 screens averaging about 6 shows each everyday. And Housefull occupies more than two-thirds of their schedule. The story won’t be too different elsewhere. The audience was laughing their guts out. And Housefull is well set on the same course that Singh is King & Welcome scored on.

The film must be funny, they claim. Why would people laugh so much otherwise? It’s the “leave your brains home” kind of stuff, they argue. Why do boneheaded critics look for any intelligence here? People go to watch a film for entertainment, they sing in unison. And what else is Sajid Khan good at except entertaining? SHUT UP AND GET A LIFE, I shout. Chillane mein kya harz hai? (What’s wrong in shouting?). On second thoughts, getting a life seems too much of a task for someone who finds Housefull even watchable. SO SHUT UP AND GET A SENSE OF HUMOUR.

Is it funny? Well, it wasn’t for me, but if your idea of fun is any of the below, you might find the film hilarious.

 (a)    Random people slapping other random people for random reasons. And as a bonus, even a monkey joins the slapfest.

(b)   Overused Kantabai-Dostana type “Gay” jokes

(c)    Tasteless racist jokes (on Gujaratis, Italians, Blacks etc.)

(d)   Pointless lies & even more pointless cover-ups.

(e)    Outrageously appalling shenanigans to placate “patriotic” feelings of the audience.

 

Is it the “leave your brains home” kinds? Now, that’s a good question. But before answering that, I’d rather explain what according to me, is a “leave your brains home” kind of film. In my opinion, these are the most difficult films to make. One needs a brain in action to catch humour, and if the audience is to be made to laugh without using their brains, the humour has to be simple, consistent & spontaneous. Some examples – Andaz Apna Apna, Hera Pheri, Dulhe Raja…and many more.

Get my point? Let me elaborate. Think about the examples I mentioned of “leave your brains home” kind of films. There are a few things about those films that stare right in your face. First of all, consistent characters. If someone has been established as a certain type of person, he/she remains so throughout the film. One doesn’t see spurts of intelligence in Amar & Prem (Andaz Apna Apna). One doesn’t see conscience conflicts in Raju or a kaleidoscopic world-view in Baburao (Hera Pheri). One doesn’t see strains of socialism in Singhania (Dulhe Raja). Even if any of these characters…or for that matter, any other from these films…undergoes a change, there’s a solid reason given in the film for that change to have happened. Secondly, the situations in these films might be improbable, but never impossible.

In Housefull, nothing adds up. You have a clumsy oaf who doesn’t know how to handle a vacuum cleaner – wrecking havoc & destruction all over, but redecorates a mess of a house in the very next sequence. You have a girl who is immensely hurt that her lover had to lie to get close to her – throwing a speech glorifying truth, but from the next sequence, she becomes the root of all lies that the plot is based on. You have a woman who can’t stand a newcomer sharing space with her & her husband – the newcomer compounds that by being the very antithesis of Midas, but she cozies up to him like a siamese twin without any rhyme or reason. These are the characters that Housefull is built on. The situations are even more imbecilic. You have a businessman from a village in Gujarat to the UK within a couple of days – visa rules don’t apply to characters in Sajid Khan’s films (This is not a nitpick…the plot depends heavily on this). The chief of Indian Military Intelligence (funnily enough, a major) can’t even see through schoolboy pranks and for effect, carries around a lie detector in his briefcase. The climax, the less said about it, the better. It makes the climax of Welcome look like it were a masterpiece from Orson Welles.

Abnormal situations and wild characters are the bedrock of comedy. And I would never call a film bad just because it has them. But I see no reason to call a film good, or even watchable, if the characters are inconsistent or not in sync with the situations, which just happens to be the case with Housefull. Hiding behind the “leave your brains home” excuse is just not acceptable in this case.

People go to the theatre for entertainment. No doubt about it. Just like people go to a restaurant to eat good food. What if the restaurant were to toss up some leftovers in an exotic sounding sauce and serve it as a delicacy? It might tickle some of your tastebuds, but would you really call it a gourmet meal? Housefull is built on leftovers. Slaps left over from Sajid’s debut, the abominable Heyy Baby. Gay & Gujju jokes from Kal ho Na Ho. Lies and mixed identities left over from No Entry & All the Best. All tossed up and served with exotic sounding sauces called Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Deepika Padukone & Lara Dutta. Gourmet entertainment!

Sajid Khan has made a living out of making fun of other people’s films. I’m sure that if he had even a modicum of artistic integrity, he would’ve subjected his films to the same level of criticism, at least internally. But looking at his two films so far, I suppose that expecting any integrity from him is like expecting almonds from a banana tree. Sometimes I wonder how this man even manages to catch any sleep. But forget integrity, I doubt if he even has a conscience.

After coming back from watching this film, I had to regain my sanity by watching the timeless Golmal by Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Another film on lies & the confusion they create. But that’s where the similarity ends. For Golmal is exquisitely crafted. The characters are quirky, but real. The situations are madcap, but so believable. The director’s honesty is striking. Housefull stands at the other end of the spectrum on all these counts.