There are two killers and three murders in Housefull 5, but the real victim is the audience. Over the course of 165 punishing minutes, this fifth instalment in Bollywood’s long-running comedy franchise turns into an unrelenting parade of chaos and crude jokes that test even the most loyal fans of lowbrow entertainment.
For a franchise that never really aspired to good taste, Housefull has always found its comfort zone in buffoonery. But Housefull 5 feels less like a movie and more like a social experiment to see how much absurdity the human mind can endure.
Directed by Tarun Mansukhani, who picks up the reins from franchise veteran Farhad Samji (now sharing screenplay credit), the film opens with a tantalising setup that quickly disintegrates. Three impostors — played by Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Abhishek Bachchan — board a luxury cruise ship, each pretending to be the rightful heir of a recently deceased billionaire. Things go further south when the doctor supposed to conduct a DNA test on them is found murdered, turning the trio into prime suspects.
This whodunit twist could have been mildly entertaining had it not been buried under layers of slapstick nonsense, groan-inducing one-liners, and problematic humour.
The cast is an ensemble of returning mascots and new entrants. Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh, franchise regulars by now, go through the motions with weariness. Abhishek Bachchan, returning to the series after Housefull 3, tries to make his presence felt, but even he seems to give up midway. Among the women, Nargis Fakhri, Sonam Bajwa, and Jacqueline Fernandez are present as mere props.
Veterans like Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, and Chunky Panday are roped in to add some retro flair, but their inclusion only leads to more noise and fewer laughs. Panday’s ‘Aakhri Pasta’ schtick is now well past its expiration date, and even seasoned performers like Patekar and Shroff look visibly confused about why they’re here.
Perhaps the film’s most glaring issue is not just that the jokes fall flat, but that they’re often appalling in content. Sexist tropes, racist caricatures, and homophobic innuendo are treated as punchlines.
Soundarya Sharma, of Bigg Boss 16 fame, plays a lawyer who keeps dropping papers so she can bend while the men around her ogle at her bust. A recurring gag happens to be Riteish’s character getting cosy with Panday’s ‘Aakhri Pasta’. Nargis Fakhri pretends to be a person of Nepali origin, but manages to blabber only ‘shaabji’ throughout.
And then there’s the cockatoo. In one of the film’s lowest points, the Jolie trio are shown beating up the bird for comic effect. It’s hard to say what’s more troubling: the writers thinking this was funny, or the producers greenlighting it.
The screenplay is stitched together with little regard for coherence. Entire scenes exist only to drop references to previous Housefull films or to force in trending memes, as if ‘meme-ability’ is now a legitimate narrative goal. The dialogues, co-written by Farhad Samji, are also juvenile.