Sajid Khan after years and years in the media industry has got his chance to make a full fledged movie. As Kishen Jhotani and other numerous avatars on the small screen he has ripped apart every bit of overacting and misdirection he has seen on the big screen. So now trying to write an objective review of a movie with a subjective perception of its director is fraught with the risk of over-judging the product. As a comedian who has made the most expensive comedy movie in Bollywood thanks to liberal spending in Sydney, he is average. As a director who has tried to cover the mandatory emotional drama in a Hindi movie he is above average.
The movie opens with a knockout opening sequence by making Akshay, Fardeen and Riteish dance with almost 15 hot actresses ranging from Malaika, Koena to Celina. Its scorching to say the least and must rank amongst the top opening songs in recent times. In fact when you expect the philandering and bantering to continue for more, the director actually introduces the baby much earlier than I expected. So then you have the standard toilet humour and w(b?)itch hunt which I would say works more due to the brilliant comic timing of Akshay and Riteish rather than good lines or situations. In fact you actually wonder that why did Sajid lift some more scenes from the original three men and a baby or elongate the comic portions.
There are a set of well executed senti moments like the realization of the three philanderers, the baby's near death scene and vidya's frustrations. But there are a lot of unexplained portions like how these guys manage to feed the baby in a lavish ked without any jobs. Or are we to assume they did the full monty as shown in the song at the end of the movie?
Vidya Balan makes an appearance at the interval as the kids mother. There are times when Sajid Khan experiments with a Madhuri-esque picturization of Vidya but her limitations on the glamour quotient seep through. Although she is a good emoter, she does seem slightly out of sorts in this role. In fact the emotional sequences work only due to the man who is probably the uncrowned superstar of Bollywood. Watch Akki Baby comes up with another domineering performance, his emoting, his cool dialogues , his total sada munda act in the marriage where he pataoes Vidya and his dancing in the mast kalandar song are all paisa vasool. But his English pronounciation is jarring at a lot of places, (but kya farak padtha hai).
Just when you were wondering why Sajid Khan is not doing any homage spoofs in his movie like his sister, you have Anupam Kher doing a DDLJ act with Raj and Sim(ran)away jokes. But SRK's special appearance though full of enthu shows all his limitations. But its fun when it lasts.
Fardeen is passable. Music could have been a lot better, but the title track and Mast Kalandar are good and well picturized. Overall Sajid Khan would taste commercial success in this movie as a good casting, packaging and marketing effort but his directorial mettle would be tested in his second movie. Till then its Ikke pe Ikka Sikke pe Sikka at the box office.
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