HAPPY BHAG JAYEGI (U)
Director: Mudassar Aziz
Cast: Abhay Deol, Jimmy Shergill, Diana Penty, Ali Fazal, Piyush Mishra
Running time: 126 minutes
One scene after the other in Happy Bhag Jayegi you imagine Bollywood stars playing out the scenes in place of the existing cast and feel happy about it. Like a Kareena or Kangana in the sneakers of Diana Penty, a Shahid or Ranbir in the sherwanis of Abhay Deol and a Siddharth or Varun in the check shirts of Ali Fazal.
The louder- and larger-than-life characters of Happy Bhag Jayegi are clearly written for stars, but played by actors who might be doing their best but don’t always have the charisma or panache to make the most of the scenes. What you are left with is a fun film which falls way short of its promise and potential.
The film’s writer-director Mudassar Aziz was the man behind the Shah Rukh Khan-Sushmita Sen debacle called Dulha Mil Gaya. It is the producer, Aanand L. Rai (Tanu Weds Manu, Raanjhanaa) which explains the casting of Abhay and Jimmy Shergill and perhaps even the setting — Happy (Diana) is from Amritsar and a large part of the film has angry and funny north Indians making silly mistakes.
From Amritsar the film pole vaults into Lahore (shot entirely in India) where Happy lands up in a basket of Ratnagiri Alphonso mangoes in the house of Bilal (Abhay), the son of the ex-governor of Pakistan! She’s run away from her wedding with Bagga (Jimmy) because she’s in love with Guddu (Ali Fazal). It’s a great premise and Happy Bhag Jayegi brings on the laughs right from the start.
Bilal is betrothed to Zoya (Pakistani actress Momal Sheikh) and all he wants is to get Happy off his back. But rather than packing her off to India, he has to get Guddu down to Lahore, and there starts a chain of events some of which are genuinely funny and some infuriatingly stupid. The situations themselves are hilarious but with the broad slapstick strokes, they often become a touch too loud and crass.
As the pretty chatterbox Happy, yet another offshoot of Jab We Met’s Geet, Diana Penty, the Tum hi ho bandhu vision from Cocktail, is just about adequate. She has become a lot more easy in her dialogue delivery but is still often caught on the backfoot.
In his first film after 2014’s unwatchable One by Two, Abhay is a little rusty and often just goes through the motions. And the problem with Ali Fazal is the lack of presence... despite his best efforts he often gets lost in the frame.
In yet another supporting role where he doesn’t get the girl, Jimmy is terrific. He has very few lines but knocks them out of the park every time. Piyush Mishra is hilarious as the Pakistani cop caught in the middle of the mayhem.
Happy Bhag Jayegi could have been a great film but it falls short because often the actors don’t rise up to the script and the treatment often veers towards slapstick. But when the big ones have fallen so miserably short in the week gone by, this is not an entirely unwelcome diversion in the pursuit of Happyness.
Pratim D. Gupta
