Housefull

Rating : 4/10
Release Date : 30th April, 2010
Time : 155 minutes
Directors & Co-Writer : Sajid Khan; Writers : Milap Zhaveri, Vibha Singh; Music : Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Arjun Rampal, Deepika Padukone, Lara Dutta, Boman Irani, Lilette Dubey, Jiah Khan, Chunkey Pandey, Randhir Kapoor, Malika Arora Khan
It’s a fine line between a goofy comedy and mindless slapstick degenerating into a farce. To my profound regret, I found this film more the latter than the former.


Akshay is a loser. He’s born unlucky and brings bad luck to all around him (including his girlfriend, Malaika who leaves him for the same reason). The only person who still tolerates him is his childhood friend, Ritesh, who works in a casino in London and is married to a co-employee, Lara Datta. Akshay’s luck seems to have turned when he marries the rich casino owner’s daughter, Jiah. But then enter Deepika Padukone, Arjun Rampal, Boman Irani to play even more gags and set things up for a grand finale.

Logic is happily ignored through the film but then you walk into the hall with that expectation. I didnt laugh loudly at all throughout but can admit to being in the minority in the audience. I found most of the jokes either slapstick or too contrived or really clichéd, oft-repeated situations. A husband snuggling into his bed and finding a man instead of his woman, an elder seeing two men in compromising situations and jumping to the assumption they’re gay, a web of lies where two friends have to pretend to be with each others girlfriends / spouses…these have all been seen before and have been done nearly to death. There is a serious lack of new thought in the film, with rehashing old gags being the name of the game.


What it relies on to pull it through though is sheer star power. The combined looks of Deepika and Lara (along with small cameo’s by Jiah and Malaika) doing enough on the glamour quotient, especially thanks to the ultra skimpy clothing donned by all of the above.
And on the male side as well, we have Akshay, Riteish and Arjun, all of whom also find plenty of opportunity to dress up as well as parade topless. Boman, Lilette were wasted in roles which didn’t use any of their acting talents but reduced them to loud caricatures.



Sajid begins the film by paying homage to the likes of Manmohan Desai, Prakash Mehra and Hrishikesh Mukherjee but then delivers a film that does justice to neither. This may do well commercially but is loud, slapstick and mindless at best and insipid, clichéd and distinctly unfunny at worst. Watch at your own peril.