Review: Housefull 2

Housefull 2
Direction: Sajid Khan
Actors: Akshay Kumar, John Abraham
Rating: **






                                 Years ago, Karan Johar had joked that the credits in his films could be somewhat altered - instead of saying 'A film by Karan Johar,' it could say 'The same film by Karan Johar.' I think this would work well for Sajid Khan. Irrespective of what you think of the man and his cinema, you must admire his consistency.
Housefull 2 has exactly the same mix of stars, foreign locations, farcical plot and spectacularly dim-witted comedy as the first Housefull. This is the cinematic equivalent of junk food - when you walk in, you know exactly what you're going to get.
Several writers, including Khan, have been credited with the story and screenplay but to speak in any serious way about a plot would be a travesty. There are merely random happenings around four friends and their four girlfriends. There are also two warring half-brothers, the Kapoors played by Rishi and Randhir Kapoor, and one ex-dacoit turned NRI billionaire, Jagga Daku or JD, played by Mithun Chakraborty. These various characters are confined to a gigantic London mansion where the farce unravels.
If you are wondering about the quality of humour, here are some sample lines: At one point, a character says, "I got your virgin, I mean version" and "Langoors have my angoors." Another one remarks, "You have piles in your brain." One sequence has Riteish Deshmukh being bit on the rear end by an angry crocodile while Shreyas Talpade's crotch is sucked by a python. In another, item-queen Malaika Arora Khan serenades Chakraborty and Boman Irani. And just when you think you've hit rock bottom, Khan springs a level lower. My vote for the grossest visual is Chakraborty romancing a dwarf maid.
Did I laugh? Sparingly, yes. Ranjeet, Bollywood's iconic rapist, has a fun cameo. But mostly, Housefull 2 was so exhausting that at one point, I grew nostalgic for Rohit Shetty's Golmaal series - another full-blown nonsensical outing but with far more energy than this. However, the actors all look like they are having fun - Akshay Kumar and John Abraham also get to show off some nifty fight moves in a few pasted-on action sequences, which of course have little bearing on anything else. But the actresses are locked into a weird pouting contest. Each one sports lips that seem especially inflated for their close-ups. And the acting is laughably bad - Shazahn Padamsee and Zarine Khan (who inexplicably plays a character named JLo) are the joint winners of the worst performance award.