Mubarakan

Anees Bazmee’s idea of film making seems to be just creating confusions and misunderstandings. The director who has made blockbusters with no brainers yet again tests the patience of his viewers. Unlike his other films, in Mubarakan there is only one guy to lessen the burden for the viewers and that is Mr. Anil Kapoor. With wafer thin plot, skit jokes and lame melodrama happening on screen for a painful 156 minutes, this is one film which producers can show to justify why writers are being paid less.

Charan and Karan are twin brothers who were raised in Punjab and London respectively as their parents died in a car accident when they were really small kids. So finally the time has arrived for the families to think about the marriages of these two. They both were secretly having affairs but never had the guts to tell their parents. So Mubarakan is basically about how they tell their parents about their love for someone else with the help of their uncle Kartar.

In a recent interview Anil Kapoor was telling that he asked Arjun Kapoor to listen to the script after he felt Arjun would be the right choice for the role. Well apart from the fact that the off screen uncle and nephew would be seen as on screen on screen uncle and nephew, there wasn’t anything in Mubarakan that made me feel that Arjun Kapoor was the perfect choice. As always every character in this Anees Bazmee movie is plastic. The funny thing about Bazmee’s films is that the melodramas in them are extremely funny and the comedy in them can cause severe damage to your brain. Infusing nonsense no brainer comedy into a story that you try to pitch as a wholesome family entertainer is a terrible idea. In Mubarakan, when you finally see that entire family patch up sentiments, it is not at all heartening.

Anees Bazmee has a style of narrating stories in its shallowest way possible and that pattern has not changed at all. So if you belong to the category that enjoyed movies like Welcome, this one would be perfect for you to laugh out loud. Bazmee’s love for creating confusions using sick logic drives the story here. It is something that directors like Priyadarshan have successfully done in the past. But those films had a coherent feel in them, but Bazmee seems to be adamant that logic or fresh humor should never come anyway near the script. The screenplay is written as if they did the reverse of solving a puzzle. And after a point the story isn’t even moving forward. Hawa Hawa song popped out of nowhere. Goggle song was my favorite among all as it had the sort of peppiness one would expect.

Arjun Kapoor as Karan was good to see on screen as it resembled the off screen Arjun. As Charan he was good on Anees Bazmee’s scale of unreal acting. I have to appreciate Ileana D’Cruz for being the first heroine I liked in a loud movie like this in a long time. She has got the knack to make space for herself in a scene. Athiya Shetty delivers a terrible performance in what could be her last film. It was really sad to see talented actors like Ratna Pathak Shah and Pavan Malhotra in those eccentric shallow characters. But the guy who scores the most in this lackluster comedy is the volcano of power Anil Kapoor. He has got that charm to bring life to Kartar Singh and the actor delivers comedy with great timing.

Anees Bazmee has maintained his standard in Mubarakan. Those of you have seen in his previous works would know whether that’s an appreciation or warning for the viewer. A Goggle song and Anil Kapoor are not enough for a movie t be satisfying.

Rating: 1.5/5