Quite a 'pheri' tale

Phir Hera Pheri
Cast: Paresh Rawal, Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty
Rating: **1/2

Dig this. Three paupers-turned-pashas are about to leave no stone unturned for brain-softening buffoonery. Oh oh, wealth means mental ill-health.

Six years later, the sequel Phir Hera Pheri tosses out humour strictly of the slip-on-the-banana-peel variety. Indeed, you’re expected to laugh at the sight of a tubby kid chomping kelas in fast motion, a millionaire using a bucket to bathe outside his swimming pool and a ghoul with metal teeth being asked, “Wow, which toothpaste do you use?” Say cheddar.

It’s all very silly, but also intermittently funny. If you don’t expect a smidgen of sophistication and subtlety, this comedy is actually pheri entertaining. For once,writer-director Neeraj Vora avoids vulgarity in favour of a knockabout farce that’s nuts but in no way, offensive.

So, check out three winners-cum-losers (Paresh Rawal-Akshay Kumar-Suniel Shetty), who just can’t adapt to their cushy lifestyle in one of those Madh-Madh-Madh-island villas. The eldest of the trio hangs on to his soda-water spectacles while the other two crave either faster cash or a family life. A sequence detailing the impossibility of getting change for a thousand-rupee note does go on forever but is also irresistibly howlarious. Tee hee.

Next: The suddenly bankrupt trio return to a chawl, and must rustle up a ridiculous amount of money to pay off  gangsta bosses. Incidentally, the dons are saucily spoofed as heavily lisped dunderheads, including a Mithun Chakraborty type from his Disco Dancer Daze impersonated here by the Bhojpuri superstar Ravi Kissen.

More plot-pourri bhaaji: swipes are even taken at the law force, like that drug den  located right above a police chowky. Practically, every Mumbaikar zips in and out of the loony business, till your head hurts with the overpopulated and interminably lengthy second-half. Oof.

The finale in a circus is as chaotic as a fish bazaar. And there’s also some kerfuffle about the female disinterests (Bipasha Basu dubbed, Rimmi Sen clumsy) hiding their sorrowfool pasts. 

With some directorial tact and slick editing, the overall impact could have been light as a feather. Alas, Vora bludgeons every little gag home till it hurts.

The use of natural locations (but why that wasteful sing-song trip to Las Vegas?), Himesh Reshammiya’s bouncy music score (but why that nonsensical chutney chataa lyric?) and the street smart dialogue are the  yupbeat factors.

Also, Paresh Rawal is outstanding. Here’s an actor who constantly re-invents himself even when he’s trapped in the same ole slapstick stuff. Akshay Kumar affirms that he has a flair for easygoing comedy. Rajpal Yadav, deadpan as ever, is a treat. Suniel Shetty is correctly low key.

So would you recommend Phir Hera Pheri to a friend? Yeah sorta,with a proviso – hey buddy, leave your thinking cap in the frigidaire.

White mischief

Chup Chup ke
Cast: Shahid Kapur, Kareena Kapoor
Direction: Priyadarshan
Rating: **

Begging your pardon, here’s a hirsute boy who  pretends to be mute. And a girl who’s really mute. To make up for their silence, everyone else in Chup Chup Ke yells his or her head, lungs and tonsils off. Do carry ear plugs to the prolific Priyadarshan’s remake of the Malayalam movie Punjabi House. Gotta grouse?

Maybe. About the only remarkable feature of this dhokla comedy (if there’s such a genre) is the snow-white art design by the presciently named Sabu Cyril. Every stick of furniture and human being is depicted in such shades of safed that you marvel at the colourless coordination – ahaa till you see a jumbo pack of detergent powder in the frame.

By the way, why show a dhobi washing heaps of clothes in a Versailles Palace-like house which could  afford a thousand washing machines?

Shoo, quiet. Just stare beatifically at the boy (Shahid Kapur, cute as a button) who jumps into the sea to avoid a posse of white-attired debtors. He lands up in a Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam-type of Gujarati household where the kakas and kakis speak in gobbledygook accents.

To cut a very turgid story short, the boy has to choose between the jewellery bedecked family gal (Kareena Kapoor, thoroughly wasted) and the backwoods babyji (Sushma Reddy, passable) enwrapped in widow’s weeds. By now, you don’t care even if the boy marries a porpoise or a piranha.

To an extent,  Priyadarshanji’s safedi ki chamkan is redeemed by the giggle-inducing performances yet again by Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav. Sorry to say, Neha Dhupia is used as a bahenji. Suniel Shetty looks more worried about his hair gel than histrionics while Om Puri  pops up  like a Jack in the box. Truly, crunching  potato wafers before the soccer match on TV  would  be far more rewarding than this greasy Chips Chips Ke.

khalid@dnaindia.net