Housefull 4 movie review: Akshay Kumar is the only saving grace in this slapstick comedy

Kriti Sanon's 'Kriti', in the course of climax of the movie, repeatedly asks everybody else in the frame "Yeh sab kya ho raha hai?" -- somewhat echoing the sentiment of the audience tolerating 'Housefull 4'.

Another question that Kriti, however, should have asked herself, and probably, the makers, is what she, her namesake Kriti Kharbanda and Pooja Hegde were doing in the movie.

It is an irony of the highest order that 'Saand Ki Aankh' is fronting this multi-starcast movie at the Box Office on the Diwali weekend. The former boasts of two supremely talented actresses carrying the entire narrative on their able shoulders; while the latter has the three mentioned actresses reduced to mere props.

And if one keenly notices, Pooja and the two Kritis are each given similar attire -- probably to leave audience guessing about who is who.

'Who is who' is actually the summary of the movie too -- the characters are super confused -- more than the audience -- about various factors viz. love, true love, genders, their own identities, this janam, that janam, and just about everything.

Reincarnation stories are confusing anyway, and if not handled properly, can leave the audience in a bit of a daze. And the question here arises -- can one expect the Housefull franchise to be a little on logical side?

Your guess is as good as mine.

Akshay Kumar's 'Harry' tries to solve this puzzle. And he tries hard. But no, sir. Just because you do one 'Mission Mangal' a year, your deed of doing 'Housefull 4' cannot be forgiven.

Akshay Kumar also plays 1419's 'Bala' -- the vicious rajkumar, who hates his praja and believes in torturing them.

Riteish Deshmukh is a dance guru in 1419, and Roy in 2019, and plays the perfect second fiddle to Akshay when it comes to generating laughter.

But apart from these two, every other actor is given less screen space and even lesser validation.

Bobby Deol is a miscast, and so is Ranjit. And so are Johnny Lever and Chunky Panday -- not that they are any bad, but only because they are too good. [And I am not joking.]

Sharad Kelkar, Rana Dagubatti, Manoj Pahwa, and Jamie Lever do justice to whatever little is asked of them. A special mention to Rana's 1419 look 'Gama'. He looks ferocious, and his 'Badla' song -- as 2019's 'Pappu' -- is one of the few comic reliefs in the movie.

Talking of comic reliefs, Akshay Kumar's physical comedy lugs the movie around -- throughout. His Harry suffers from short term memory loss -- a rip off from Rohit Shetty's Golmaal series' Bhoolaa -- and falters at the most crucial moments. THIS is intended to be the ONLY humour in the runtime of the film.

Akshay, by that measure, is the only saving grace. And he also -- almost -- saves it from becoming another Tees Maar Khan [because TBH had he not been there, I would have walked out.]

Why I am forced to compare it with Tees Maar Khan is a not-so-long list of reasons. One of them is the music. Sohail Sen's music is foot tapping. The song 'Bala - Shaitaan Ka Saala' is tastefully shot and picturised. So are the beautiful locations and palatial sets, recreating the world of the 15th century.

Tees Maar Khan, I said. Not Happy New Year.

So the humour falls flat -- every single time. You don't need a shot of horses when Ranjit says 'don't be horsing around'. But it is the Housefull universe. And there can be no moment of intrigue. Not even in comedy. Nada!

Adding to this is borderline offensive humour -- sentences like 'main abla hoon, tabla nahin', and 'issne gender ka tender nahin bharaa hai'. Not cool. [I wish the uproar created on movies like Kabir Singh gets diverted to these lines. Much required here.]

But all is not all that bad. 'Housefull 4' is funny in parts -- the only issue is Harry lends his short term memory loss to the audience and one can’t hold attention for more than ten minutes at any given point.

It's but a bizarre universe of Housefull, and an even more bizarre world of reincarnation. Watch it for Akshay Kumar (only if you wish to and have nothing else to do).

p.s. There's Nawazuddin Siddiqui too (and the less I say about it the better).