Sanjay Dutt, who runs an escort club in the film, says you don't require a degree to make somebody laugh. Instead you need a pedigree. Well, first-time director Rohit Dhawan has got it. The son of David Dhawan, who gave us some mindless comedies in the last decade before missing the trick, lives up to expectations. He has given us a sleek, upmarket version of what his father has been dishing out all these years.
A cute orphan, a staple patriotic moment, a court-room climax and that at the end of the day, heroes can't go morally wrong — it has all the chapters from Bollywood's book of clichés but is packaged in the proverbial new bottle. So, we have heroes (Akshay Kumar and John Abraham) playing male escorts in London (you can't set such ‘liberal' tales in India!) to fight recession, for, they say it is the only industry that is recession-proof.
However, recession only remains a thought, for we never see it on the screen full of lush bodies and opulent ambience. Rohit doesn't expect us to feel for the guys. No encounters with boring and aged women either; the clients they get are good looking. After all, male audiences have to be provided their share of fill! Rohit plays it safe, keeping it innocuous as if he is offering youngsters a new career option. Interestingly, the clients respect the boundaries of physical intimacy in a paid-for relationship.
The film is shot in London, but it has to make money in Ludhiana. So, we have an Economics professor (Chitrangada Singh) at the prestigious Trinity College, who teaches the subject to his ‘favourite' student, by stripping to encourage feelings in thedesiboy. As for the emotional content, when the girlfriend asks the hero, how he will feel if he finds her stripping in front of 50 guys, the hero replies he did it for an orphan kid, and flies off to the moral high ground. Now, it is for the girl to play the pleading part…
The cynics will find it regressive, but the best part is the film doesn't take itself seriously and with ‘an adults only' tag attached to it, not many are even expected to take it seriously. The story may lack novelty, but it never drags as the two-hour long screenplay is laced with frothy gags and crispy one-liners. Rohit knows how to laugh at the clichés that dot his storyline, so the moment things begin to go syrupy or a hint of melodrama starts looming, there's a joke or a silly moment to break from the monotony. And, of course, there is Mika to give the public an irresistible item.
If you play along or see through the façade, both ways, laughs are guaranteed. Akshay and John share crackling chemistry and the girls, Deepika Padukone and Chitrangada Singh, play the dumb part with a refreshing smile. Especially Chitrangada, who makes a seamless transition from the meaningful to meaningless. In an industry full of look-alikes, she somehow manages to look different in the most plastic of characters. Directors now seem to be looking for excuses to dress John in sleeveless outfits, and the hunk is unabashedly letting his body do all the talking. An ageing Akshay is repeating himself, but manages to pull off the jokes with a straight face. If John is using his biceps, Deepika keeps putting her shapely legs forward irrespective of the climate she is shooting in. Entertainment at its superficial best!
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