Farah Khan’s HAPPY
NEW YEAR has blockbuster written all over it. So is Farah Khan’s trademark
sense of humor coming out of anything & everything from sexist scrutiny and
racist remarks to murderous-merciless mocking at the purest human emotions
people usually love to cherish! So if you find nothing bad in ‘alag sirf NAME
hain, baaki sab SAME hain’ comment on how Korean and Chinese people look
relatively identical to a common ignorant Indian; there are chances you will
love HAPPY NEW YEAR for its unarguably pathetic gags, hamming performances and
an uneventful heist-plot even any of Farah Khan’s cute triplet could come up to
start with.
HAPPY NEW YEAR is nothing
but a wastrel celebration of two Khan’s collaboration for a gala event where audiences
are cordially invited but their sensibility is taken for granted at many levels.
The man on mission here is Charlie [Shah Rukh Khan], a son seeking revenge of
his father’s unjust fate from a rich heartless fraud [Jackie Shroff]. To give him
back what he deserves, Charlie plans to rob him of his diamonds worth gallons of
millions. And there forms, a group of six losers as they love to call
themselves with a mother-powered unmarried Parsi [Boman], a tapori [Abhishek],
a bar dancer [Deepika], a young tech-savvy hacker [Vivaan] and a strapping
& stripping stuntman [Sonu Sood]! But before the D-day comes, they have to
be on stage participating in the ‘World Dance Championship’ i.e. ‘India’s got
talent’ goes global!
Being unapologetically
self-assured about her idea of mass-entertainment, Farah hardly tries to sound
or look smart when it comes to give us a plot tagged with predictability as its
only nature. Do not think harder or rather not even attempt it and you will
easily foresee the next sharp turn ahead. Same goes with the gags. It’s either
someone who can’t speak English or someone who has hearing impairment to
produce cheap word-plays. Before Shah Rukh playing the master-planner and the
captain of the ship comes up with the punch line spoken thrice in the film, “Every
loser gets at least one chance to emerge as the winner”; let me tell you the
concept of losers shown here. The Parsi brat stammers. The bar dancer
constantly gets humiliated as being ‘Bazaaru Aurat’ by no one lesser than our
leading man himself and easily falls in trap with his charming looks and English
speaking skills. How pitiable can our Indian ladies be! At least in bollywood
movies! On the other hand, we have Sonu Sood playing a strong-built single-headed
who can jump into a fight soon someone shows disrespect to his mother but he
himself doesn’t hesitate mouthing foul words having sisters in center. Double standards!
Whatever creates humor!
With a tiring,
tedious and repetitive 3 hours of duration, HAPPY NEW YEAR falls short of juicy
dialogues, enjoyable dance numbers and praiseworthy performances. Only breathing
space you notice is Shah Rukh’s magnetic screen presence, Deepika’s charismatic
dance moves and Abhishek’s comic relief but as if Farah would not compromise
with her instinct to ruin all emotions, she brings patriotism in the scene just
before you try to locate the exit. You can be talent-killer. You can proudly be
a robber. You also can be insensitively rude towards your fellow member of
human race but just one patriotic song at the end with a tricolor in the backdrop
and no one could ever question your heroism. Anyways, who bothers if the man in
question is the king of Bollywood himself!
I clearly remember
having greater laughs in a couple of ‘Comedy night with Kapil’ episodes on TV
where the cast of HAPPY NEW YEAR appeared as its promotional routine. Well, I better
go search those on YouTube after resting my case here. That was epic! This is gimmick! A wafer pack full
with air, if you get it! Watch it if you must! [2/5]
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