A ride in a bus named Chal Chala Chal with Govinda and Rajpal Yadav should be fun. But this rather long ride is nothing like Bombay to Goa. Nor is it a medley of events with motley passengers as in Honeymoon Travels Pvt Ltd.

Govinda and Rajpal get together for two-and-a-half hours to send you off to sleep, despite putting in lively individual acts. That’s not how a Govinda movie should be! Neither is Rajpal at his comic best here. When both get together on screen sparks however do fly. Their reactions and timing are incomparable, but the effect is missing as the journey gets tedious after a while.

Govinda is a very honest person and Rajpal Yadav is a true friend who stands by him. Govinda’s father, Om Puri, an honest retired school principal, is fighting a case with the school to get his dues after his retirement. Losing the case would mean selling off their house that is valued in crores. Govinda’s two brothers-in-law are fighting Om Puri too, as they want the house sold.

Om Puri wins the case, though all that the school can offer him is an old school bus as compensation. To make the best of the situation Govinda and Rajpal get a road permit and set up a business. But business isn’t easy for the big-hearted, honest Govinda. He soon finds himself in a rut.

As these problems tumble down on him like a bus with failed brakes, things get more and more tiring. From dealing with the labour union, to a lazy driver, a conductor who runs away with the money, to the rishwatkhor officer, to a girl, Reema Sen (wasn’t she history?), who poses to be injured by the bus and takes money from him, then falling in love with the same girl, to the final courtroom scene — it’s so Eighties! There is even a song that sounds made back in the Eighties and it goes Nacho...don’t say bas... Gao... don’t say bas... Jhhumo... don’t say bas!

Bas! Enough of that! Director Rajiv Kumar couldn’t do much with the plot nor with the cast that also had Om Puri, Asrani and Manoj Joshi. Govinda being Govinda holds his own and Rajpal plays a perfect sidekick. Rest is... chal!