Housefull or empty, logic has no place

‘Housefull 5’ has finally dropped, and the fifth outing of the Rs 800-crore franchise, headlined by Akshay Kumar in a star-studded cast, comes with two climaxes. This comedy-thriller, however, evokes laughs and thrills only in bits.

The plot follows billionaire Ranjeet Dobriyal’s 100th birthday party on a luxury cruise, ‘Aiee’, where celebs from across the world are set to join. But before the party can commence, Dobriyal, who has enjoyed live concerts right from “Tansen to Sushmita Sen”, dies an ‘untimely’ death.

Instead of cancelling the cruise party, his son, the board of directors, and the three Jollys with their wives in tow, begin the hunt for the bounty left by him.

The film begins on a bloody note and familiar tropes — extended gags, crass jokes, cheap humour and objectifying women. But then, that’s the hallmark of this franchise. Unlike his dashing entry in other franchises, Akshay Kumar makes a funny one this time, and roams around with a long tail in boxers the next morning.

Joining him are the usual suspects. As the needle of suspicion turns on the three Jollys — Jalabuddin (Riteish Deshmukh), Jalbhushan (Abhishek Bachchan) and Julius (Akshay Kumar) — more murders happen and any semblance of a plot goes woof.

There are good-looking folks — Dino Morea and Chitrangada Singh sizzle; and Nikitin Dheer commands as the ship captain. In the fancy setting, ‘Housefull 5’ gets the fashion element right.

The film banks on the franchise formula — mistaken identities, and bringing back stock characters Chunky Panday as Aakhiri Pasta and Johnny Lever this time as jailer Batuk Patel.

Sonam Bajwa as Zara mouths some Urdu before breaking into Punjabi expletives. The first half pieces together a string of jokes and makes one laugh a bit.

As those on the ship fail to find the murderer, Baba and Bhidu — Sanjay Dutt and Jackie Shroff — mark their entry in a helicopter not to save the plot, but to crash it harder. In comes their Interpol boss Dhagdu (Nana Patekar) in a dhoti-kurta.

Managing a score of Bollywood A-listers, the chaos overtakes the ship and everything goes haywire. Nobody goes to a ‘Housefull’ film for logic. But you expect some threads to be pieced together. They not only forget about a bag thrown in water, but also the son of slain businessman Dev (Fardeen Khan) all together in the climax because they had to introduce another character, Jalal (Bobby Deol).

Just like the actresses of the film, the ship itself as the setting of the story is pointless. It could well have been any hotel lobby, for the story has no scene with any connection to water.

The jokes are third grade. The actresses, including Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri and Sonam Bajwa, are there just for the skin show. Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Shreyas Talpade and Riteish Deshmukh have enjoyed long careers and come with a little expectation. With the exception of Akshay, who gets to play a goofy detective, none gets any major scenes or dialogues. So much so that Chunky Panday, who makes his fifth outing as Aakhiri Pasta, barely gets any dialogues.

The ‘Housefull’ franchise, if nothing else, gets the jokes on Bollywood right. Here, those references are few and far between. Songs have been another mainstay, even if cheap. Every kid on the block was dancing on ‘Bala’ at its fourth outing, but here, the songs too are rather forgettable.

The second half of the film is a scream fest. Everyone is yelling, running and falling over. It’s somewhere between a circus and an IPL after-party gone wrong.

While one is all for ambition, the makers have released two versions, hoping to draw audiences to cinemas twice over, but if one misses to generate enough laughs, a second outing is a long shot.

Director Tarun Mansukhani and writer Sajid Nadiadwala (also the producer) manage to sink this luxury ship together. ‘Housefull 5’ is like a cruise with no captain, weak direction, and everyone screaming, hoping a plot floats by in the ocean.

The grandeur and the production value is huge, but misses to register in this total chaos on senses. One can safely skip this one; the trailer is funnier than the film!