Hulchul

Director: Priyadarshan

Cast: Akshaye Khanna, Kareena Kapoor, Suniel Shetty, Jackie Shroff, Arshad Warsi, Arbaaz Khan, Amrish Puri, Paresh Rawal, Asrani, Shakti Kapoor, Laxmi, Farha

6/10

Here is a comic caper that will endear itself to anybody who doesn?t have a problem with implausibility. Enjoyable for the most part, Hulchul makes no pretensions about what it sets out to achieve: to tickle your funny bone without troubling your grey cells. Not surprisingly, Priyadarshan?s script and characterisations are both over the top.

Amrish Puri plays a foul-mouthed patriarch who does not allow any woman into his house and forbids his four sons from marrying just because his arch-rival is from the opposite sex. His adversary is just as quirky. Thirsting for revenge, she encourages her sensitive grand-daughter to play a game of love and deceit with her enemy?s son.

Though Priyadarshan?s characters go through situations that are not as well imagined or subtly written as they could have been, the humour is unmistakable. Best of all, the viewer can sense that the cast is having fun, and that is an infectious feeling.

Like Hera-Pheri, where the actors displayed a wonderful chemistry among themselves, Hulchul derives a great deal of its charm from the comic flair of the ensemble cast. Arshad Warsi?s delight at discovering a secret about his friend Akshaye Khanna?s brahmachari brother and Suniel Shetty?s repartees with his eccentric mother are just two of the many moments worth a second viewing.

Akshaye and Kareena display a great rapport while veteran Laxmi (remember the original Julie?) and Farha make sparkling comebacks. Paresh Rawal, as always, is brilliant. Hulchul might not be classic comedy, but it does tickle the ribs.