HOUSEFULL 3 (U/A)
Director: Sajid-Farhad
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Lisa Haydon, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff
Running time: 135 minutes

The good news about Housefull 3 is that Sajid Khan, who directed the first two Housefull films, has nothing to do with this film. Not that those two films did badly at the box office but Himmatwala and Humshakals must have haunted the makers long enough to fire him as director.

The bad news is that the guys who wrote the second film are his replacement. Sajid-Farhad, who made their directorial debut with the strictly non-entertaining Entertainment a couple of years back, have helmed Housefull 3, which is a sequel only by title. Even the two characters who seemingly return — Boman Irani’s Batuk Patel and Chunkey Pandey’s Aakhri Pasta — are repeat offenders, only by name.

Because Batuk Patel, who had only one daughter in the second film, is the father of three girls here — Ganga, Jamuna, Saraswati. But since they stay in London, when the lights go out Patel’s angels become Gracy (Jacqueline Fernandez), Jenny (Lisa Haydon) and Sarah (Nargis Fakhri).

Now that’s an inspired bit of casting because none of the three can speak Hindi and all three have the reverse disease Ajay Devgn had in Bol Bachchan — they make literal translations of English phrases in Hindi. Like they would say, “Aap aakhrot hai?”, when they want to say, “Are you nuts?” Yes, it’s the desperate hour at the theatres.

Anyway, the girls are in love with Sandy (Akshay Kumar), a football player, Teddy (Riteish Deshmukh), a car racer, and Bunty (Abhishek Bachchan), a rapper. But Papa Patel doesn’t want the girls to get married and gets Aakhri Pasta to appear as a fake astrologer who warns the girls of their father dying if the boys step into their mansion, see or even call out to him.

Solution? Sandy appears in a wheelchair, Teddy dons blind glasses and Bunty plays mute, filling up the house of fools and leading to slapstick set pieces with everyone falling on one another and cracking every racist and disabled joke they can rustle up. Then there’s a customary twist at the interval, a few more characters inducted in the house in the second half and more juvenile buffoonery to wrap it all up.

Ever since Rohit Shetty started it with one of the Golmaal films, breaking down the fourth wall has become the norm in the plotless farce genre. So, Riteish suddenly calls Jenny Genelia and Abhishek dives to stop an Aishwarya Rai wax statue from taking a tumble and Akshay watches Airlift on TV.... Housefull 3, for most of its running time, is one of those unbearably loud and embarrassingly absurd comedy shows on TV, demanding you to be the autoplay Sidhu laugh machine.

The only track which is actually marginally funny is Akshay’s split personality. Every time he hears the word “Indian”, he snaps out of Sandy and becomes Sundi (not funny for Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne fans) and starts fighting himself. Akshay is a veteran of these silcoms (silly comedies, silly) and he can now make enough funny faces to crack you up regardless of the scene(s) or co-actor(s).

Riteish and Abhishek have their moments but largely play around Akshay. The girls do not even try knowing they are only being scored in the eye-candy column. Boman and Chunkey are of the rambunctious kind. And sorry Tiger, Jackie Shroff is still the coolest cat around.

Not just on Snapchat, even comedy in films has become criminally unfunny. They no longer insult the audience intelligence, they dutifully imply, film after film, that the paying public is stupid, unread, uncouth and will roll on the floor at just about anything thrown at them. And that’s really no laughing matter.

Pratim D. Gupta
Is Housefull 3 the best/ worst silcom of the year? Tell t2@abp.in