Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek A Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Fardeen Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Chunky...
Cast: Sanjay Dutt, Jackie Shroff, Nana Patekar, Akshay Kumar, Abhishek A Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Fardeen Khan, Shreyas Talpade, Chunky Panday, Chitrangada Singh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Sonam Bajwa, Soundarya Sharma, Johny Lever and Ranjeet
Director: Tarun Mansukhani
A return to form for the series' frontman,
Akshay Kumar, and all the other people involved in the production — especially
the director. I have nothing against Farhad Samji, but his brand of humor (at
least directorially) is specifically catered to younger audiences; the constant
overshadowing of innuendos (which more often that not, would’ve benefited the
film), the focus on more physical comedy than actual verbal jokes — it all
feels very immaturish, but the Housefull series has built itself on Dhamaal’s
(not Double Dhamaal) grave. While Farhad Samji does write the screenplay along
with director Tarun Mansukhani and producer Sajid Nadiadwala, the immaturity is
somehow given a boost, while also giving the raunchiness a boost, which — if
not done right — is a setup for failure, but somehow Mansukhani pulls it off,
just like he did with 2008’s Dostana (which, fortunately or unfortunately had
Karan Johar’s signature all over it).
Housefull 5 is sort of a culmination of
everything the series does right and is famous for, and boosts everything by a
hundred percent — a no holds barred maximalist satire on greed, at the same
time being meta — its really impossible to not notice that the cruise is a
representation of the film itself — and really self-aware (like the entire
series). If the film were to be a person, it would be a wannabe-edgy
middle-schooler, desperately trying to make fun of anything in front of it (or
with it) in good humor. The humor is extremely juvenile (hence the reality
surface level, and oftentimes cringe worthy but funny nonetheless, sexual
innuendos), and the only thing that makes it work is the actors’ commitment to
it working.
The set-pieces are grander and at the same time, more minimalistic, than the previous films (especially Housefull 4). The film could, and will be, labeled as a cheap copy of an Agatha Christie mystery, and it proudly is that. The film is a sort of backhanded apology to the critics who panned Housefull 4 by being even more juvenile and raunchier and dumber and funnier. The jokes land almost every time while the physicality compliments it in the best way possible (Papa Ranjeet dry humping the air while talking about 69 is hilarious). The film features tons of throwbacks to the previous installments (they have an entire subplot around the parrot from Housefull), and it doesn’t feel like a cash grab, but feels thought out — in one word, fan service. The characters (whilst not as fleshed out as Housefull 2) are fun to watch. The total commitment to making this work is the biggest strength the film has, making it thoroughly enjoyable. The film's background score has reference from the films like MI, The Expose, Om Shanti Om, Khalnayak. Don't miss the name of the ship 'Aiyee" (Ranjeet's signature grunt)
So much hype about the two endings- well catch the murderers if you can.
-By Ravit Mishra
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