The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : It’s waste paying for these ‘guests’

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Monday, Jun 22, 2009
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

It’s waste paying for these ‘guests’

Mindless chaos: Yet another farcical comedy

Film: Paying Guests

Cast: Shreyas Talpade, Javed Jafferi, Celina Jaitely

Direction: Paritosh Painter

It’s yet another farcical comedy which Bollywood churns out like an assembly line production these days. Here the aim is to have a mindless chaos so that the director could have a “Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron” kind of ball by the last roll. Director Paritosh Painter seems to have forgotten that when the destination is planned first, the journey tends to become monotonous.

He has absolutely no plans to bring freshness to the tale of four friends in need of accommodation in Pattaya. When they find a suitably dumb landlord (Johny Lever) the condition of ‘only for the family’ comes in the way…so two of them are forced to become drag queens to buy some time. Enter the heroines and a stuttering brother (Chunkey Pandey) of the landlord, which lead to confusion and eventually pave the way for the aforesaid pandemonium. Paritosh hasn’t wavered from the established ‘Golmaal’ formula which has brought sizeable returns at the box office in the recent past.

Here nobody is spared and no situation is above board. In such contraptions, plot is virtually non-existent and a flurry of lowbrow gags constitutes the screenplay. Paritosh jokes come straight from the lavatory and lurid details in the name of smart turn of phrase are in bad taste.

Right from the ‘Tehelka’ days, Javed Jafferi is adept at crossdressing and here again he gives it all. Unfortunately, the director has given him some cheap make up so don’t expect any authenticity! Shreyas Talpade is up to the task as well and has tried to keep his senses when everybody around him was losing it. Lever and Delnaaz Paul do manage to rub the funny bone off and on but for how long you can laugh at somebody who calls wedding as welding and expecting as expanding. Celina Jaitely, Neha Dhupia and Riya Sen are usual suspects in such enterprises where dumb dolls are the need of the hour for some unimaginative situations for skin show. Such guests should pay to be watched!

Anuj Kumar

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