A Double Whammy
Housefull 5 | Director: Tarun Mansukhani | Cast: Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh
IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE, the film could be called Julius, Jalbhushan and Jalaluddin, but the religious agnosticism is the only thing they share with the Manmohan Desai classic Amar Akbar Anthony, a masterclass in elevating the ludicrous. Three not so young men of three different faiths are laying claim to the inheritance left by their father, Ranjit, played by Ranjeet, once a fixture in 1970s movies for his attempts to ravage the heroine. Ranjit has lived till a healthy 100 and now it must be decided who the heir is, as he lives on via a hologram. Everyone is on board a cruise where the three heroes pretend to be Jolly, Ranjit's son from his beloved first wife. It is not surprising that the movie contains half of Mumbai cinema's ageing leading men. The jokes on the women, who look and sound similar, are crass; there is a running theme of a reincarnated, AI-generated parrot who is subjected to much abuse; and cameos by a series of actors such as Nana Patekar and Jackie Shroff. Frat boy comedies can be fun with exotic locations and beautiful, if similar looking women. But this is not one of them. What's more, there are two versions of the film, with two different killer reveals. That's a double fault, if there was one.
