HAPPY ENDING: The search for a Happy Ending kills a lot, for bad! [2/5]

You don’t have to be a hardcore fan to know the set recipe for any romantic comedy film. Boy meets girl. Both are opposite in every sense. Girl falls for the boy. Boy hates commitment. Heart breaks. Love aches. Girl leaves. Boy misses. Boy seeks. Boy realizes. And then comes the fairly famous ‘Airport’ scene where things apparently fall into their pre-designed place! How hard it could be! But what if you want to break it and mold the same in a complete new pattern? Well, you have to be smart enough to pull it off and not confused even an ounce to ruin the promise and the prospect. Impressive filmmaker duo Raj & DK’s HAPPY ENDING fits in both the scenario equally. And that makes it an irritating mash-up of likeable scenes & enjoyable smart one-liners with futilely overstretched plot & an almost never-ending climax.

Yudi [Saif Ali Khan] is a ‘one book wonder’ writer who hasn’t written any more in last 6 years in short of good ending but knows well when to call for an end in a relationship. Hearing his girl saying those three magical words could cause him signs of losing his confidence to his illustrious stuttering state. His latest break-up status with the all mental & dental overbearing girlfriend [the cutely annoying Kalki] is still ‘complicated’. He couldn’t tell her straight because he didn’t want to hurt her. ‘What a thoughtful jerk!’ one of his ex-girlfriends compliments him.

In a parallel track, the fading writer Yudi has no other option left but to write a superhit romantic comedy film taking so-called ‘scene by scene’ inspirations from Hollywood hits for a Bollywood superstar [Govinda keeps his charms working]. Though his life so far has been one such romantic comedy, Yudi chooses to go around with a budding writer Aanchal [Ileana D’Cruz] to get help and soon lands himself in situations expected from more than a mile! Well, almost!

The film works well at many fronts. Beautiful locations, pictorial cinematography, smart one-liners and Saif Ali Khan back in ‘his’ den. He does hit every chord right portraying a puzzled, commitment-scared flirt dressed in all designer summery cool clothing line with the costliest car on road. He sure looks confident and comfortable as an actor here and that’s much relief after his horrendous HUMSHAKALS act. Kalki marks an electrifying presence the whole time she’s on screen. Ranvir Shorey succeeds in providing some good laughs but it’s Govinda who never misses your attention and love for his expressive mannerism. My favorite subplot includes Preity Zinta playing an understanding, kind and gracious ex-girlfriend of Yudi.   

Film falters big time by reaching nowhere while looking aimlessly for a different recipe of a romantic comedy. You can not compromise with the one you pulled your guns at. That never takes you any close to heroism. And Raj & DK being the whistleblowers in the industry, it feels worse. You can expect any low from Kohlis, Anands and Malhotras of renowned big banners but not from these two. Film starts settling for a convenient, age-old, tried & tested ending after much wandering in the second half. It gets so dreary that the last 20 min seems unbearably long. Yudi mouths a thoughtful line at the end, “One shouldn’t always look for a happy ending. End it wherever you think it should”. I wish the writers & the makers of the film would have taken it seriously. [2/5] 

HUMSHAKALS: Leave Entertainment, this is an insult to Cinema! [0.0/5]

Disclaimer: The fact that I had admired Sajid khan long back for being literally an encyclopedia to 70s-80’s Bollywood, especially with all the lesser known junior artists, character actors and the inside out gossips from every corner of the Bombay Film Industry, now hardly there to exist. Sajid Khan as a filmmaker has completely lost the respect even for being the tiniest part of this creative medium. So if in this review of mine, I sound unapologetically personal and too harsh sometimes, it’s purely intentional. Follows the review…

HUMSHAKALS is as illogical, as weird as its title. Neither there is a word like it in any of the dictionaries in the world, nor does this maddening world exist anywhere in this universe. Since it is supposedly a comedy of errors, I am going to try my best to make you laugh, or smile for that matter with some of its jokes. While working at a food-joint, one ‘Ashok & Kumar’ of the 3 look-alikes [Saif & Riteish; don’t bother who are the others] serves parathas made with cocaine and everyone around starts moving as either zombies or more like bhangra-lovers. Save yourself to witness them making ‘Vodka ke Parathe’. Don’t try this at your home!

The next ‘Ashok & Kumar’, escapees from mental asylum are seen playing with the life-supportive ventilator of an old man in coma [Akash Khurana as if he’s more comfortable there than being in the main league] as if it is some video game. Insensitive? Wait, there is more. The warden at the so called ‘CRAY G. Hospital’ [Played by Satish Shah] keeps torturing the patients with his favorite electric treatment performed with naked wires. Now, where on earth one uses that technique is barely matters if you are in a Sajid Khan World. This is the world where drops of a drug can turn you in dogs. People still apply Chloroform on hankies to make their targets passed out. A lollypop can heal the mental stroke.

Even all these can be overlooked if the very idea of entertainment is right, seriously, but it’s always like asking for too much from a Sajid Khan Film. Actually, it is an insult to your intellect and sensitivity as a human being. Homosexual men are again and again being portrayed as ‘always aroused’, moaning sex-starving guys. Characters cross-dress to seduce their look-alikes and fall into hysterically annoying love-cum-rape scenes. Songs come out of nowhere to just make it a loo-break in every 20-min or something. Considering the degree of stupidity Sajid throws at you, this is one nice & smartest move to keep viewers fresh like new from scratch. You should better take each one of them to survive the whole film.

Bipasha had earlier made it clear that she wasn’t happy with the outcome and that’s why she kept herself away from the film promotions. I wonder what made Saif not go for that option. Watching him suffer as an actor who can’t even crack a joke properly or deliver an ordinary piece of dialogue without hamming is a terrible experience! Riteish and Ram are not so bad comparatively. We better not discuss the girls. They are hardly there to impress with their acting skills.

At the end, I hope it is the end. Let’s just not take cinema for granted in the name of entertainment. Leave Entertainment alone, this is an insult to Cinema! I just can’t throw my precious stars on such waste of time, money and efforts of thousands of people on a film-set. Stay away, or else you might release your anger, aggression and distress caused by the film upon your friends and family! [0.0/5]