This
is
the
kind
of
film
to
watch
with
friends
and
maybe
a
six-pack.
It
has
some
risqué
bits
but
nothing
so
vulgar
that
the
pause
button
would
need
to
be
hit
if
Mummyji
walks
into
the
room,
notes
Deepa
Gahlot.
This
is
Punjab,
but
it’s
also
Luv
Ranjan’s
laddish
universe
in
which
a
bunch
of
overgrown
boys,
who
ought
to
have
adulted
by
their
30s,
run
riot
from
Patiala
to
Pathankot,
with
enough
booze
consumed
to
float
a
few
boats.
Wild
Wild
Punjab,
co-produced
and
co-written
by
Ranjan
and
directed
by
Simarpreet
Singh,
is
a
somewhat
sober
version
of
The
Hangover
school
of
cinema.
It’s
much
less
profane
and
just
borderline
misogynistic
—
nobody
gets
an
anti-women
monologue
(maybe
because
Kartik
Aryan
is
missing
in
the
melee)
—
and
if
setting
fire
to
a
place
with
alcohol-saturated
piss
is
anybody’s
idea
of
comedy,
then
this
one’s
funny.
There
are
four
friends:
Maan
Arora
aka
Arore
(Sunny
Singh)
is
the
Casanova,
Gaurav
Jain
(Jassie
Gill)
is
the
‘vegetarian’
daddy’s
boy,
Honey
Singh
(Manjot
Singh)
is
the
rich
transport
company
heir
and
Rajesh
Khanna
aka
Khanne
(Varun
Sharma)
is
the
joker
of
the
pack,
the
actor
still
channeling
his
inner
Zach
Galifianakis.
To
give
him
credit,
though,
nothing
is
too
ridiculous
for
him,
including
getting
a
bullet
in
his
backside
and
then
getting
kicked
there.
Khanne
is
distraught
because
the
girl
he
loves
is
getting
married
to
another.
After
getting
roaring
drunk,
they
decide
to
drive
the
three-hour
distance
to
the
wedding
venue
in
Honey’s
swanky
SUV
he
lovingly
calls
Paro,
so
that
Khanne
can
tell
Vaishali
(Aasheema
Vardaan)
—
often
referred
to
as
veshya
(hooker)
—
that
he
is
over
her.
Three
hours,
however,
turn
out
to
be
a
very,
very
broad
estimate,
since
the
path
to
heart-mending
closure
is
strewn
with
distractions.
It’s
tough
to
encapsulate
the
plot
without
giving
away
spoilers
but
along
the
way,
they
crash
a
wedding,
get
into
drunken
stupor
and
add
a
passenger
(Patralekhaa)
to
the
car.
Then
it
is
decided
to
take
a
detour
so
that
they
can
pick
up
a
young
woman
(Ishita
Raj),
who
can
pretend
to
be
Khanne’s
hot
new
girlfriend,
so
the
‘I’m
over
you’
would
be
more
convincing
and
the
bride
could
be
made
jealous.
Every
few
minutes,
in
the
fast-paced
misadventure
(screenplay
and
dialogue
by
Sandeep
Jain
and
Harman
Wadala),
something
goes
wrong
for
the
dudes.
Since
it
is
Punjab
of
the
Bollywood
stereotype,
at
some
point,
cops
(Rajesh
Sharma)
are
involved,
a
lockup
is
experienced,
drugs
enter
the
picture
and
gangsters
(Anjum
Batra,
Samuel
John)
join
the
fray.
There
is
violence
but
of
the
jokey
kind.
In
the
midst
of
a
chase
and
shootout,
there
is
a
hilarious
phone
conversation
with
a
gun
supplier
about
a
malfunctioning
weapon.
Bullets
fly,
cars
overturn,
but
nobody
actually
gets
hit,
except
unfortunate
Khanne,
in
the
posterior.
It’s
all
in
the
cause
of
entertainment.
Men
getting
into
trouble
because
of
their
stupidity,
greed
or,
in
this
case,
uncontrolled
guzzling,
is
a
legit
subgenre
of
the
road-cum-buddy
movie.
Every
time
there
is
a
lull
in
the
movie
market
for
a
comedy,
one
of
these
can
be
trotted
out.
The
friends
can
be
men
or
women;
the
idea
is
taking
a
trip
that
goes
topsy-turvy!
The
last
ones
that
hit
the
spot
were
Madgaon
Express
and
Crew.
A
film
like
Wild
Wild
Punjab
needs
an
actor
like
Varun
Sharma
to
raise
the
laughs.
The
other
three
do
their
bit
and
play
off
his
antics
and
sportingly
let
the
light
shine
on
Khanne.
This
is
the
kind
of
film
to
watch
with
friends
and
maybe
a
six-pack.
It
has
some
risqué
bits
but
nothing
so
vulgar
that
the
pause
button
would
need
to
be
hit
if
Mummyji
walks
into
the
room.
As
for
Daddyji,
the
film
has
one
meanie
(Gopal
Datt)
who
tells
his
son,
‘You
mess
up
and
I
will
go
back
26
years
and
wear
a
condom.’
Generations
of
scary
Punjabi
fathers
never
got
a
line
like
this.
Wild
Wild
Punjab
streams
on
Netflix.
Wild
Wild
Punjab
Review
Rediff
Rating:
