Unwelcome mess

Nonika Singh  

What do you make of a movie whose lead actor Anil Kapoor says, “It’s not a great film”, in which you are   expected to leave your brains behind at home (pray how) and which is a sequel to 2007 blockbuster Welcome? That it would be silly like its prequel goes without saying. No doubt the film is silly, sillier, silliest (choose your own variant) and doesn’t require you to exercise even an iota of your grey matter. That’s exactly what they mean by dimaag ghar chod kar aao. However, a film touted as the funniest film of the year should come high on fun quotient too. 

For a start we meet the two bhais Udai (Nana Patekar) and Majnu (Anil Kapoor) chastened and somewhat respectable who even cough up haftas rather than collecting them. The premise is almost the same. Once again they are in search for a good sharif groom. The laadli behn (Shruti Haasan) has sprung from nowhere. Actually she is Udai’s father’s (also Patekar) offspring from yet another marriage. Funny?  The director thinks so and offers more ridiculous nonsense in the garb of comedy. The bhais’ itch to get married, falling for the same gal and in the process getting conned by mother-daughter duo, the juvenile love story between the hero Aju (John Abraham) and heroine Ranjana (Shruti)—all this is meant to bring the house down. Alas, it’s the film that comes crumbling. As the director blends nonsensical plots, adds inane songs to no effect, peppers it with some funny and mostly ‘not so funny’ dialogues what you get is a cocktail that is only sporadically palatable.

Ludicrous situations, dumb jokes, implausible storyline make you grimace more than laugh. Amidst all the mayhem more is caused when Naseeruddin Shah makes his entry as the blind don with faultless nishaana and a name Wanted, as quaint as RDX  (remember Feroze Khan in Welcome). Amidst the baraat of buffoons, Naseer stands out and has a few intelligent one-liners up his sleeve too. Yahan par kanoon bhi mein hoon aur andha bhi mein…smart wisecrack no doubt. There are a few more rib-tickling one-liners in store many of which come rather late. In fact, the two bhais too find their chemistry when the action shifts to Wanted’s kingdom. A few genuinely amusing sequences follow especially the graveyard scene where bhais play antakshari with ‘bhoots’. Yes, despite the absurdity of it all, they make your funny bone tingle. But how much can they stretch an already stretched plot. Not surprising, even gifted actor Paresh Rawal can’t save the film from slipping into moronic humdrum. 

Sure, we know the film isn’t meant to be taken seriously. Naseer keeps reminding, ‘mazak hai bhai.’ Only, we have a sneaking suspicion the joke is on the audience. Anyway, if you are game for laughable rather than truly comic and even few laughs would suffice, by all means welcome the bhais again. But if you are looking for a laugh riot, better watch the prequel again.