Housefull 5 Movie Review

‘Housefull’ is one of the most successful Hindi comedy film franchises. There have been four films released so far in the franchise and irrespective of the reviews from the critics, all four films went on and became successful at the box office. In an attempt to replicate the success of the earlier four films from the franchise, the makers came up with the fifth film, Housefull 5. Akshay Kumar and other regular members of the franchise along with a few more new actors were hired by the director, Tarun Mansukhani and the producer, Sajid Nadiadwala, to make a loud and over-the-top comedy film. Did the producer and director succeed in their attempt to make the audience laugh? Does the fifth film from the franchise have a chance to become a box-office success? Let’s figure it out with a detailed analysis.

What is it about?

Ranjeet Dobriyal (Ranjeet), a London-based billionaire who owns a luxurious Cruise dies mysteriously during his multi-day birthday celebrations on the cruise. As per the will written by Ranjeet Dobriyal, after he passes away, the board of directors of his company has to hand in the responsibilities of running the company to his son, Jolly. But, None of the board directors knows who Jolly is. The only thing they know is that Jolly will board the cruise on Ranjeet’s birthday at 03:00 PM. To their surprise, the board of directors come across three different men (Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Abhishek Bachchan) who introduce themselves as Jolly. Who among the three is the real Jolly? Who killed Ranjeet Dobriyal? Forms the rest of the story.

Performances:

Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Abhishek Bachchan’s comedy timing in most places was good. Especially, Akshay Kumar as usual excelled with his comedy timing. The three male lead actors’ timing in delivering fun lines is the only saving grace in this farcical comedy movie.

Apart from the three male lead actors, there were at least ten notable actors who played crucial roles in the film. Almost all of them made a mockery in the name of comedy. There were five notable actresses in the name and all five of them had not much to do other than showing their skin in liberal doses.

Technicalities:

There is nothing much to talk about the technicalities in the movie. All the technicians delivered pretty standard output. There were many music directors who shared the credits for songs but none of the songs stands out. Same goes for the background score. Editing and cinematography are subpar. Lets discuss more about the writer’s work and the direction in analysis section below.

Positives:

1.⁠ ⁠Comedy Timing of All The Three Lead Actors

Negatives:

1.⁠ ⁠Everything Else Apart From The Above Mentioned Positive

Analysis:

If you have watched the four movies released so far in the ‘Housefull’ franchise, you will know what to expect from ‘Housefull 5” before stepping into the theatre. You know you should not expect logic, you know you will see farcical, over-the-top and loud comedy, you know there will be a lot of chaos and you know there will be a lot of crass and crude below-the-belt comedy. The movie has everything that you expect from a new instalment from the ‘Housefull’ franchise. However, it will take only five minutes into the movie to realise the makers went overboard in every aspect at the writing table in a desperate attempt to make the audience laugh.

Housefull 5 is louder than you expect. It is cruder than you expect. It is crassier than you expect. It is more chaotic than you expect. It is more senseless than you expect. It is many levels over the top than you expect. The director, Tarun Mansukhani, who shared the writing credits with Farhad Samji used every other private part of the human body in a disgusting way to generate fun. Almost every attempt at generating comedy involves a double entendre. It is as if like both Tarun Mansukhani and Farhad Samji strongly believed there’s no other way to generate comedy other than objectifying a human body part.

They tried generating humour using cleavage, crotch, buttocks, and lips. And, the most disgusting part is that they even used below-the-belt hair to generate humour. It is atrocious, to say the least. Sadly, the makers of the film and their brains still believe that a man ogling by staring at the cleavage of a woman or women is a way to generate comedy. There is a sequence in the movie where the three lead actresses crawl in a tunnel-like thing to get into a laboratory. The frames used by the cinematographer in that sequence are outrightly disgusting. It is the objectification of a woman’s body at its peak.

And then, there is a sequence where the three lead actors of the film fight with a Macaw, a bird. Also, there is a sequence where Akshay Kumar fights with two monkeys. Both these sequences show the lack of ideas in the writer’s brain and the desperation of the director to make the audience laugh at any cost. Apart from being a slapstick comedy, the movie also pretends to be a whodunit thriller. The entire screenplay around the investigation is outrightly silly, and senseless and lacks the intriguing factor. It is easy for the audience who watch a lot of very well-made investigative thrillers on Netflix and other digital platforms, to guess who the killer is within the first few minutes of the film itself. The makers of the film released two versions of the film on the same day in theatres with two different climaxes. The idea is to have a different ‘Killer’ in each of the two versions. Unfortunately, you don’t even need a detective’s thinking hat to guess who the two killers are in two different versions of the film.

The reviewer who wrote this review watched the movie in a packed theatre and observed a set of the audience in the theatre laughing out loud at the jokes in the film. So, if you are someone who can laugh at crude, crass, chaotic jokes and if you are fine with making jokes by objectifying parts of a human body, you can try watching ‘Housefull 5’. And, everyone else who doesn’t fit into the aforementioned category, please do yourself a favour by staying away from this farcical and brain-rotten comedy.

Bottomline: Housefull 5 – Crass & Crude

Rating : 1.75 / 5

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