WELCOME BACK: Partly funny-largely frustrating! [2/5]

Anees Bazmee’s WELCOME BACK is a time-machine that takes you in the times of its successful predecessor WELCOME (2007). The moment it takes off, you come to realize that nothing have moved an inch in all these 7-8 years; neither the silliness in the plot nor the sensibility of the director. A girl, despite having strong and extreme dislike for ‘goondas’ gets kissed by one belonging to the same genus and ends up singing and dancing a romantic number with him, without showing any apprehension. This is a crass world where everyone makes a joke on everyone’s looks, features and physical stances irrespective of their gender, age and class. All in the name of entertainment! All for the sake of cheap laughs! Some really work but in the tiring 2 hour and 33 minutes of its total duration, most fall on the face. WELCOME BACK remains a terrible try to reproduce and recreate the box-office magic WELCOME (2007) created long back; which by now, looks like a classic in comparison with this partly funny-largely frustrating flick.

The furious Uday Shetty [Nana Patekar] and the fanatic Majnu Bhai [Anil Kapoor] are looking for a simple, sober and sophisticated groom again for their brand new sister Ranjana [Shruti Haasan]. The search takes them back to Dr. Ghoongroo [Paresh Rawal] whose newly-find son Ajay [John Abraham] loves Ranjana. Now if you are scratching your head to know where these new additions have come from, let me give you a hint. ‘The dark secrets of a happy married life’. Anyways, the trouble in the proposed marriage happens to be the groom himself. Ajay is actually Ajju Bhai- a local don in Mumbai. Things go messy when an international mafia Wanted Bhai [Naseeruddin Shah] makes an entry with his drug-addict son [Shiney Ahuja] wanting to marry Ajay’s love interest and Uday-Majnu’s sister. Meanwhile, there is a con mother-daughter duo [Dimple Kapadia & Ankita Shrivastava] to make it more muddled and mixed-up.

WELCOME BACK is majorly backed by the Nana Patekar-Anil Kapoor combination. Together, they live every moment in the film with total conviction and wholesome energy. Although Bazmee relies more on the third-rate giggles out of unapologetic comments on everyone’s appearances like Anil Kapoor is called ‘Tedhe Kandhe’ because of his leaning body posture, Supriya Karnik’s character is cursed for her hairstyle with ‘boy-cut halkat’ comment etc. The list includes blinds, deafs and dumbs, overweights and what not. The background music constantly hammers on your hearing senses with a completely unbearable chorus-intro for every major character. Sub-plots are added just to complicate the storyline and to make it overcrowded to create a chaotic climax where you can easily fall for the trick and get ready to accept anything that comes on the way to finally end it all. The logics get its high when a blind don gains his eyesight after his head gets banged in a fight. Similarly, the hero manages to run on the humps of running camels to save a life.

In a very few mentionable sequences, Nana and Anil supposedly play Antakshari with ghosts in a graveyard. In other, Rajpal Yadav impresses in a scene where he’s beaten by goons but forced to dance while being in the middle of it. Paresh Rawal is watchable but Dimple, Ankita & Shruti are not even that. John carries off it well. The addition of Naseeruddin Shah to the cast was supposed to recreate the magical presence of Late Feroz Khan but ends up being in an uncomfortable zone. Shiney Ahuja seems out of the place all the time.   

Overall, WELCOME BACK is an old and predictable, long and tiring joke. Some of the performances do make it watchable but the lack of smart writing-clever punches-logical explanations, and idiocy in the storyline kills the fun and the pun both. If WELCOME had amused you, this will annoy you. [2/5]                        

FINDING FANNY (ENGLISH): ‘Finding it funny’ is an understatement! [3.5/5]

Early in the collective journey to find the love of an old loner’s life; when the later reacts in anxiety, ‘Isn’t it hot today?’, the man on driving seat and with the least interest in such trip throws away his apathy, “I am feeling cold”…“You must be in fever then” “no, it’s a statement of sarcasm”, he clarifies straight-faced & boldly. That should also be the preliminary and precautionary declaration to viewers as what they should expect from Homi Adajania’s smartly written, deliciously performed and dynamically directed comedy-drama FINDING FANNY.

Set in an unreal-unheard village of Goa, Fredie [Naseeruddin Shah, tastes as good as old wine] is a lonesome postman with no letters to deliver. His life gets an awakening knock when someone drops an old undelivered letter to his doorstep. It was written by him 46 years back and for his love of life then, Fanny. It is an end to his years-long wait but to give it a possible fresh new start to find Fanny, there’s Angie [Deepika Padukone as bright & shine as the morning Sun] who, despite her 15 min-short married life firmly believes in, “No one deserves an incomplete love-story”.

There’s also Angie’s heavily-structured crabby-grumpy old mother-in-law Rosalina [Dimple Kapadia in an all juicy-spicy avatar], a bitter, harsh & sulking love-interest to Angie [Arjun Kapoor’s best till date] and last but never the least, the amazingly vibrant but lecherous womanizer artist in search of a new muse for his painting, Don Pedro Cleto Colaco [The powerhouse and an institution in himself Pankaj Kapoor]. Together, they all are on a ride to find love in their lives.

FINDING FANNY is dark-dim & gloomy in emotions where every character is either with broken hearts or in deep abandoned state of mind seeking the missing piece in their lives but the way they behave and presented on screen is very caricature-ish yet far more realistic than any Bollywood mainstream cinema. So, there is plenty of room for humor that comes from the wit in the nature of being that character and belonging there in the said situation. Point to be noted here is that you have to be very attentive and alert to not miss any of the punches hidden or underlined in any regular verbal exchange. Special mention to the writer!

The lingo is rooted, earthy and well in-synced with the spirit of English speaking Goan people. Anil Mehta’s visual strokes are like travel postcards. The old houses with fences, bricky textures, neatly stuffed rooms with furniture and props slowly getting into antique mode and picturesque landscapes of Konkan belt are vividly captured. Mathias Duplessy’s tingling music constantly keeps you engaged in the scene. And if not anything, the performances will floor you right away. Naseer’s cute smiles, Pankaj’s lustful eyes, Arjun’s burst of anger, Deepika’s naive beauty and Dimple’s richly layered emotions, there are reasons more than just one to not miss it.

After his last being a 100 Cr club entrance (Deepika-Saif starrer COCKTAIL), FINDING FANNY is like Homi’s homecoming to what he had promised with his first (BEING CYRUS). No non-sense performances, grave humor and a good hand at writing. It is easily one of the most refreshing films you’ve seen this year! [3.5/5]