Housefull 4
Ratings: 2.5/5
Duration: 2 Hrs 26 Mins
Director: Farhad Samji
Genre: Comedy. Drama
Release Date: 25.10.2019 (India)
Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Kriti Sanon, Pooja Hegde, Kriti Kharbanda, Rana Daggubati, Sammy John Heaney, Sharad Kelkar, Aakash Dabhade, Chunky Pandey, Ranjeet, Johnny Lever, Saurabh Sachdeva
Plot: Housefull 4 is a comedy on a whim. The film is divided between two eras - 1419 and 2019. In 1419, the love stories of three couples are left unfinished owing to a conspiracy. They meet again, reincarnated, in 2019, and the romances are rekindled. But this time pairings are mixed up.
Harry (Akshay Kumar), Max (Bobby Deol) and Roy (Riteish Deshmukh) own a barber shop in London and are in debt. Trying to make ends meet and to pay off the massive loan, they plan to marry three filthy rich millionaire sisters Pooja (Pooja Hegde), Kriti (Kriti Sanon) and Neha (Kriti Kharbanda).
Together, they all go to this obscure heritage hotel in India for a destination wedding only to discover they have been reincarnated, after 600 years. There’s a whole lot of hoopla around as each of them take their own sweet time to learn the truth and that’s basically, the movie!
Review: The entire first half of the movie is an unflinching flashback sequence where the opening credits are very similar to the opening of BAAHUBALI 2: THE CONCLUSION. In fact, there’s an in-your-face reference to the film later.
There isn’t much to say about other characters in the film. It is Akshay Kumar who has the most fleshed out role and shoulders most of the film. Riteish Deshmukh gets the quirks of his characters well and does manage to pull in some laughs. Manoj Pahwa, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Rana Daggubatti and Johnny Lever have their oddball parts to play in the film - though some seem just pointless.
The girls, well, just serve the purpose of being an 'eye candy'. Of the actresses, it is Kriti Sanon who has the lengthiest role and pulls it off well. Kriti Kharbanda and Pooja Hegde are reduced to being props, owing to their limited screen time.
The dialogues of Housefull 4 are so cringey and unoriginal, the movie got anything remotely close to being funny was because of Johnny’s hilarious drag queen attire and dialogue delivery. However, several sequences are weak, and the jokes fall flat. The writing is also to be blamed but the director could have hidden these shortcomings. Moreover, the songs are average, and won’t have a recall value.
However, Akshay Kumar is sure a crowd-puller and even managed to create a mad hype around the film with a series of viral social media dance trends. But since Blue (2009), Housefull 4 has to be his biggest Diwali dud.
HOUSEFULL 4 is a major disappointment and suffers on the account of poor writing and vacuous screenplay. If you are a fan of the Housefull brand of comedy, it might appeal to you. But if not, then proceed with caution.
