Movie Review: HouseFull 3 – A Slapstick Entertainer, Strictly For Masses!

After two blockbuster predecessors in the form of Housefull and Housefull 2, this week’s release Housefull 3 produced by Sajid Nadiadwala and directed by Sajid-Farhad starring Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Lisa Haydon and Nargis Fakhri comes with a lot of expectations. However, with a different set of directors (the previous two were directed by Sajid Khan) does Housefull 3 do justice to the hit franchise is something we can analyze below.

The movie tells the story of Batuk Patel (Boman Irani) who has three daughters with awful Hindi speaking skills, Ganga (Jacqueline Fernandez), Jamuna (Lisa Haydon) and Saraswati (Nargis Fakhri). In front of their father they are the ideal daughters who are cultured and quite dutiful however, to the outside world they are the ultra glamorous Gracy, Jenny and Sarah. The trio is dating Sandy (Akshay Kumar) who has a split personality disorder, Teddy (Riteish Deshmukh) a car racer and Bunty (Abhishek Bachchan) a rapper.

Batuk does not wish to get the three married due to some unknown reason and to discourage them he tells them of an astrologer’s prediction of him dying if they get married. Tempted by the girl’s strong financial background, when Sandy, Bunty and Teddy convince the trio to marry them, all the three girls reject their proposals citing the astrologer’s prediction. Amidst all this, enters the dreaded Mumbai don Urja Nagre (Jackie Shroff), who has a secret agenda of his own. What is the secret of Urja Nagre, how is it connected to Batuk not getting his girls married? What happens to Sandy, Bunty and Teddy in the end, and will the girls finally get a happy ending is what lies ahead.

Being a slapstick comedy do not expect logic here and you should not compare the movie with a Waiting or a Lunchbox or a Bajrangi Bhaijaan as the genres are totally different and Housefull 3 stays true to it’s genre of being a ‘Mass Entertainer’. Coming to the writing part – the writers have borrowed a lot of one liners and jokes from social media memes and whatsapp but does a good job with them. The movie starts strong but loses its steam in the second half however, it finally ends up in a fine way. Coming to direction Sajid-Farhad does an average job. Maybe the humongous expectation from the franchise would have weighed them down apart from handling a multi-starcast.

As it is a multi-starcast movie therefore it does not belong to any one actor. Akshay Kumar and Ritesh Deshmukh being pioneers in slapstick comedies handles their characters very well. Akshay’s split personality scenes are hilarious. Abhishek Bachchan although does a good job, fails to impress as a rapper. Among the girls Jacqueline Fernandez does a good job while Lisa Haydon and Nargis Fakhri are plain okay. Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff and Chunkey Pandey ably support in taking the movie ahead.

Even with multiple music directors – Sohail Sen, Mika Singh-Milind Gaba, Sharib-Toshi and Tanishk Bagchi, music is a sore point in this movie unlike it’s predecessors. Tang Uthake and Pyar Ki is average while the other two tracks are forgettable. The cinematography by Vikas Sivaraman is good. He has captured the locales in London beautifully while the editing by Steven H. Bernard could have been crisper in the second half.

Overall even with its flaws Housefull 3 is a one time watchable movie and it will definitely appeal to the masses.

My Verdict: **1/2