Third time is not the charm

Sheetal

Chucha, armed with his ‘deja-chu’, is back with his antics in the third instalment of ‘Fukrey’. Though served on the same platter of comedy of errors, it doesn’t take forward the franchise’s entertainment quotient.

To his credit, the writer has made sure that the treatment of the characters remains the same. Bholi Punjaban, played by Richa Chadha, is the same — raw and gutsy, this time running for election. Opposite her is her bhola-bhala, diehard fan Chucha aka Varun Sharma. To win the election, Bholi hatches a plan to get rid of Chucha and his loyal gang, including Hunny (Pulkit), Lali (Manjot) and Panditji (Pankaj), by setting them up for a task in South Africa. In a way, the only upgrade that ‘Fukrey’ gets is going international. Chucha finally gets married to Bholi. Now that’s something we all had been waiting for, but this happiness turns out to be short-lived as it turns out to be a fake marriage!

With strong characters and witty dialogues, the film holds promise but not the audience’s interest. The plot is that weak.

Across the last two outings, Varun Sharma managed to steal hearts with his performance, and he successfully accomplishes that here too. Richa Chadha and Pankaj Tripathi have all the good dialogues, complete with punches. Pulkit and Manjot add to the nostalgia quotient of the franchise. There are just not too many tropes for them to bloom. There is utter nonsense too. In one scene, the piss and sweat combination of Chucha and Hunny becomes flammable petrol!

Chucha’s tomfoolery, a social message and some adventure may have worked for ‘Fukrey’ till now, but as they hint at another part, not everybody seems ready to lap it up. If only the makers could be stopped from cashing in on the franchise. For ardent ‘Fukrey’ fans, this would be a bearable watch, the others can sit out.