Movie Review - Housefull 4: Full on chaos, this House loses the plot
Nonika Singh
Patni shakti hai aur pati sehanshakti. And what of the patience of the audiences who have the gumption to submit themselves to yet another outing of moronic Housefull series? Depends entirely on which side of the fence you stand. If you have a penchant for mindless and senseless comedies, you shall certainly find a few laughs here. Of course, if you are looking for comedy with purpose, seek your poison elsewhere.
Not to say that Housefull 4 is totally bereft of intelligence. There are a few zany one-liners and flashes of wit as well. Akshay Kumar, as the main lead, does get to mouth a couple, especially his veiled dig at his age. Then there is Rana Daggubati, who in his second avatar gets to sing an entire song that packs more than a punch. His play on sargam too is rib-tickling. But all this comes much later, in the second half after we have been deluged with dimwit humour and logic-less story.
In his first janam, Daggubati is, well, an amped-up version of Baahubali. The fact that the film comes riding on the reincarnation angle is no secret. Akshay’s much- hyped look as Bala has already created quite a flutter. Only his actions, especially in the dance number, Bala shaitan ka saala, are cringe-worthy and demand censure and not a punarjanam. But here he is in 2019, tracing his arc and love back to 1419. So are the rest of them— Bobby Deol, Riteish Deshmukh and, of course, the franchise favourite Aakhiri Pasta.
Chunky Pandey’s effervescent dialogue, ‘I am joking’, retains the flavour of the prequels, only few jokes hit home. As with the previous instalments the humour caters to the lowest common denominator. Much is imbecile and of the vulgar variety too. The one emanating out of confusion of rebirth is more a device to keep the chaos and the battery of stars together. Apart from three heroes, three heroines, there is Johnny Lever, Ranjeet and Sharad Kelkar, who, by the way looks dapper in his 2019 look even if it lasts a few seconds. Not to miss Nawazuddin Siddiqui, who gets to utter his iconic dialogue from Sacred Games.
You bet it’s a crowd out there.
But if there a method in madness, it is of the usual variant; slapstick, double meaning, gender bender, man dressed up as woman. Just when you think Johnny Lever speaking in English, playing sophisticated Winston Churchgate has turned a new leaf, well he joins the “fish market,” with same silly cheap tricks up his saree pallu. Somewhere the trio of heroes wonders aloud, “original”… we suspect they are taking a pot-shot at themselves and the audience too.
It takes two lifetimes to find true love, goes the tag-line of the film. Only for critics like us it takes four outings to realise the cinema of Housefull 4 kind is beyond critics’ meter. Perhaps, it’s for movies like these that some critics decided to do away with the star rating system. But since we haven’t, we go with less than average, of course, not to be taken seriously by the franchise fans who laugh at the slightest provocation. For the rest, well, we certainly are not joking; either about the rating or our advice to steer clear of this one. For, instead of bringing the house down, it finally brings us down to lower than the lowbrow.
nonikasingh@tribunemail.com
