Housefull (2010)

When a film starts off being dedicated to the likes of Manmohan Desai (Amar Akbar Anthony, Dharam Veer), Brij (Yakeen, Yeh raat Phir Na Aayegi)Prakash Mehra (Zanjeer, Muqqadar ka Sikandar, Sharaabi) Feroz Khan (Qurbani, Dharmatma) K. Raghavendra Rao (Tohfa, Himmatwala) you instantly know you're in for some solid classic suspension of belief moments. However, Sajid Khan 's Housefull lacks the distinctive style of the aforementioned producers, but it's a watchable fluffy slapstick comedy

Brief Synopsis

Aayush (Akshay Kumar) is a "loser" whose bad luck follows him all about, he believes his bad luck will end when he meets his true love. In a bid to gain some good luck he returns to London to meet his best friend Bob (Ritesh Deshmukh) whom he claims brings him luck. While in London he's set up with Devika (Jiah Khan) the daughter of Bob's boss (Randhir Kapoor), they get married under his blessings as he approves of Aarush being a traditional Indian boy. Following their marriage they honeymoon in Italy, where Devika reveals she's in love with a White guy named Barry, she had only married Aarush to save face with her father, she cuts a deal with him offering to pay him lots of money if he consummates their marriage, Aarush agrees and then meets another woman Sandy (Deepika Padukone). Will she be the true love that'll bring an end to his bad luck?

Classic leave your brains at home fluff, do not look for logic in this film, nitpickers will have a lot to pick on, like teenagers in the streets of London speaking in American accents, Canary Wharf tube station (which is in London) appearing in Macau (Asia)etc. The film succeeds as a slapstick comedy but the climax drags on a bit and felt rushed as few plot elements weren't concluded the way i would have liked

Performance wise, everyone was on hamming mode (in a charming way) with the exception of say Arjun Rampal. Chunky Pandey as the Italian 'Aakri Pasta' with his "Mamma Mia' i'm only joking" line really made me laugh. I also really liked Jiah Khan, she's barely in the movie as much as i would have liked her to, but she's impressive.

Now unto something that has been getting this film criticism, there's a scene which involves a black baby (i actually felt this was a bit of a social commentary on colorism, as Boman Irani later notes that what matters is the heart, as such i feel the film redeems itself ) what i found annoying was the way Akshay's character explains his African roots, by breaking out in a stereotypical African Jig and tribal type noises, I found this scene unnecessary & i hope bollywood directors realise their films are becoming ever more popular now, all these racial stereotypes & jokes are so unnecessary.

All in all a silly slapstick comedy with some truly whacky moments like Akshay getting slapped numerously by a monkey & numerous Gay innuendos. If you like loud, jumbled, slapstick comedy then check this out.

Good commercial soundtrack by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy my favourite of all the tracks is the hilariously sexy 'I don't know what to do'

I'd give Housefull 6/10

For a full list of movies that Housefull borrowed from, check out Bobby talks cinema post here

Love Aaj Kal (2009)

Love Aaj Kal ( Love Today & yesterday) has been one of this summer's eagerly anticipated movies, so off i went to the cinema to see what this film has to offer and here are my quick thoughts on the movie

Synopsis

Jai ( Saif Ali Khan) and Meera are a modern hip couple who live in London, when work and life opportunities arise, they decide to spilt up, however they still remain good friends, they even have a break up party. At the end of the party Jai meets Veer Singh (Rishi kapoor) who's suprised at Jai's casual manner over his split, he tells him him about how love meant a lot more in his days and in a series of flashbacks the love story between a young Veer (played by Saif Ali Khan in a turban) and Harleen ( Shweta Gulati), whom he sees and falls in love with at first sight, the movie then keeps going back and forth showing us Love Today between Jai and Meera and Love Yesterday between Veer and Harleen.

Anyway back to Love Aaj (Today) and Meena is settling into her life in Delhi, she and Jai retain a good friendship and they text and tell each other about their new loves, dates etc. Jai meets Jo and the two start dating, simultaneously Meera not wanting to be left out too starts dating her boss Rahul Khanna. When Jai's new girlfriend decides on a trip to India Jai goes with her and he takes the opportunity to revisit Meena, the two have a wild time together and indulge in a litle romance, the tables turn when they both appear at a New year's eve party and Rahul who is Meena's boss proposes to her, Meena then asks Jai what he thinks about his proposal, Jai is not forthcoming about his feelings and Meena asks him to get away from her sight never to return thus resulting in a second break up


My Nit Picks about this movie
As much as i watch fun brainlesss movies, this is one where i guess i actually tried to switch my brain on

I found the constant flashback scenes a bit unnecessary, a one time look at Veer and Harleen's relationship should have been sufficient to set their story up the constant flashbacks were distracting and confusing

I found this film regressive in a bad way, this is the year 2009 and a modern hip girl like Meera would have known what she wants, Meera's character doesn't seem to have a mind of her own, why did she have to wait till she had walked round the fire a whopping 7 times to realise she didn't love her husband as much as Jai, and since she and jai had broken up and he had a girlfriend of his own what was the need to seek his approval?

The characters emotions are laughable rather than cry and sympathise with the characters, i actually found myself laughing at their stupidity and self caused calamity

While i'm not a moralist in the strictest sense, Meera and Jai are rewarded for their selfish, self centred attitudes at the expense of other peoples feelings, in this case Rahul (Meena's husband) is left to bear the brunt of the love she still feels for Jai

I'm not even going to praise anyones performance here as i didn't like the story line too much at all, they all played their parts well but the entire thing crumbled in my eyes due to the storyline

Overall i was hugely disappointed in this movie the happy ending was so cliched and the whole thing as i've said was so regressive, like one of those melodramatic over the top love stories in 70's/80's bollywood

What i liked about this movie

The first half of the movie was much more bearable, i liked the way it showed Jai and Meera's post break up relationship and how they kept each other involved in their activities

Neetu Singh's appearance, although she appears in a cameo role

Deepika, even though her character as Meena is flawed and in some aspects has little to do which eventually reduces her character to the atypical filmi love girl, Deepika oozes screen presence and vah, vah, vah, so much beauty

The gorgeous locales and the songs, i don't care wherever Pritam copied it from, the songs were top notch, from the sweet sounds of Chori bazaar, to the fun dancey the twist and the super fun 'aahun aahun' which definitely has to be one of the biggest earworms of the year so far

Total Score: 4.5/10

I know people are going to compare this to Jab we Met but they're two different films in my own opinion, i was more in tune with the characters of Jab we met but i felt emotionally detached from the ones in Love Aaj Kal, at the points where they got emotional i actually laughed at them

Edited to Add

According to imdb Love Aaj kal is said to be based on the 2005 chinese film Zui Hao De Shi Guang