Akshay Kumar runs away with Welcome To The Jungle, but a few unexpected scene-stealers ensure he isn’t having all the fun.
Key Points
- Akshay Kumar delivers the funniest performance in Welcome To The Jungle through his dual role as the fading superstar Rajiv and his army officer father, Vishwajit Kohli.
- Suniel Shetty surprisingly shines, parodying his action-hero image and ’90s rivalry with Akshay Kumar, contributing significantly to the film’s humour.
- Farida Jalal and Kiran Kumar provide unexpected laughs with their incomprehensible dialogue and sincere portrayals, stealing scenes from the younger cast.
Ah, let’s begin this feature with a disclaimer.
The writer of this feature doesn’t claim that Welcome To The Jungle is a comedy masterpiece or a laugh-a-minute riot. But it is still Director Ahmed Khan’s funniest movie, and there are stretches that elicit genuine chuckles with their meta narrative and entertaining performances.
The self-deprecatory humour works in the film’s favour, including digs at its own troubled production, and how the actors in the industry are basically sellouts, particularly in how they promote patriotism in their movies. Ouch!
Yet, there is also no denying that Welcome To The Jungle is an unoriginal film that draws heavily from Tropic Thunder and Three Amigos, among others. It also relies on callbacks to the earlier films in the franchise and even outside them (like Awara Paagal Deewana and Phir Hera Pheri), while not exactly following their continuity.
Some jokes are genuinely smart, but then there are some that fall back on fat-shaming and sexism; save for Raveena Tandon, Welcome To The Jungle largely sexualises its leading ladies, Disha Patani and Jacqueline Fernandez, in the name of humour.
The editing issues are also visible, reflecting the gruelling production troubles and numerous casting changes (Sanjay Dutt, Mika Singh, Sharib Hashmi, Inaamulhaq and Rahul Dev were once part of the film).
What’s more, Welcome To The Jungle is an overstuffed film. The multi-starrer gives almost every actor a chance to shine, but also feels like it would have done itself a huge favour by trimming the cast and making the roster more streamlined.
Tusshar Kapoor, Yashpal Sharma and Mukesh Tiwari hardly have anything to do. The casting of Firoz Khan, Puneet Issar and the late Pankaj Dheer works only for that Mahabharata joke, one the film has to underline very boldly about what they are crowing about, and the less said about Daler Mehndi’s acting, the better.
Had the cast been leaner, the other performers might have had even more room to shine. Because there are some genuinely funny performances here, and in some cases, a very clever use of the actors themselves.
Sreeju Sudhakaran ranks the 10 funniest performances in Welcome To The Jungle, from fairly amusing to completely scene-stealing. No surprises about who takes the top spot!
10. Raveena Tandon (Zoya)
Raveena Tandon leaves the other leading ladies far behind, and the film knows it, even including a scene where Disha and Jacqueline’s characters acknowledge that she is chewing the scenery. Hers is also one of the film’s strongest performances, and man, she looks absolutely gorgeous.
The only reason she ranks lowest on this list is because Zoya is written as a comparatively serious character, with her arc revolving around her dead husband, her mute daughter and the villain’s obsession with her.
Still, she shines in the hilarious scene where Zoya meets Rajiv for the first time and berates him for disappearing from her life for 20 years. Any allusion to their real-life history is, of course, purely coincidental!
9. Paresh Rawal (Das) and Rajpal Yadav (Dev)
Considering they play a director duo who appear together in almost every frame, it makes sense to club them together. Both actors perform well and contribute to some of the film’s funniest moments, like convincing Yeda and Romeo that they will fill a particular scene with CGI henchmen.
But considering how Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav usually steal the show in ensemble comedies like Awara Paagal Deewana and Bhool Bhulaiyaa, they aren’t given enough standout moments here to truly flex their comic timing.
8. Krushna Abhishek (Rambo)
Like Rajpal Yadav and Paresh Rawal, Krushna Abhishek and Kiku Sharda are paired together to capitalise on their The Kapil Sharma Show chemistry.
The difference is that Kiku gets saddled with jokes that rely almost entirely on body-shaming while Krushna at least gets some zingers to throw at others, even if he is also responsible for most of the body-shaming aimed at his partner.
7. Shreyas Talpade (Nainsukh)
Shreyas Talpade’s role is amusing largely because of its irony, with a visually impaired man working as a cinematographer.
While much of the (lazy) humour comes from gags about his poor eyesight, he gets a couple of genuinely funny moments in that space, like not knowing who is bribing him (it’s Rajiv BTW) or failing to realise where the gorge is during the climax.
6. Johny Lever (Dubey)
Johnny Lever is a treasure who, for some reason, remains underutilised in Bollywood these days. Just seeing him on screen brings a smile to your face.
He plays the producer’s right-hand man, who first has to ensure the film is made at an absurd budget and flops badly, only to later make sure it becomes a hit with just one day’s shoot left.
Like several characters in the film, he has his own comic quirk. Whenever he gets excited, he loses his voice, though he himself never realises it while everyone else struggles to understand him. It works particularly well in a scene where both he and Rajiv lose their voices and end up having a ‘silent’ conversation.
5. Kiran Kumar (Murad Chacha)
Speaking of conversations no one else can understand, who expected Kiran Kumar to deliver one of the funniest performances in the film?
The veteran actor plays a villager who speaks in chaste Urdu that leaves everyone baffled, while he alone can understand what Badi Bi is saying.
Kiran Kumar plays the role with a deadpan seriousness, but it’s his delivery and everyone else’s bewildered reactions that make his scenes so funny.
4. Arshad Warsi (Romeo)
Romeo is Majnu Bhai’s (from Welcome and its sequel) brother, but apart from that painting sequel gag, the relationship barely matters. The character lacks a defining quirk, but Arshad Warsi’s impeccable comic timing and rapid-fire comebacks make him consistently entertaining.
The two sequences where Romeo confronts Zatara and his men along with Yeda Anna and later Rajiv without realising who they are, leading to two completely different outcomes, are among the funniest in the film.
3. Farida Jalal (Badi Bi)
Farida Jalal is the oldest member of the cast, yet she gives everyone a run for their money with one of the riotous performances in Welcome To The Jungle.
She is delightful as the elderly village woman whose speech is incomprehensible to everyone except the slightly more comprehensible Murad Chacha.
Her funniest moment arrives when Badi Bi hijacks the Kaanta Laga moment from the heroines, just as she steals the title of the film’s funniest actress from them.
2. Suniel Shetty (Yeda Anna)
One of the nicest surprises in Welcome To The Jungle is seeing Suniel Shetty outshine actors who are traditionally associated with comedy.
Not only does he borrow the name of his character from Awara Paagal Deewana, but he also brings back the character’s tendency to forget names of stuff.
However, more than the jokes on his amnesia, what entertains more was how his performance riffs on his old macho action-hero image and his ’90s rivalry with Akshay Kumar, and he is completely game for the self-parody.
The constant sparring between Yeda Anna and Rajiv, from trading one-liners to competing over action scenes, gives Welcome To The Jungle some of its biggest laughs.
1. Akshay Kumar (Rajiv and Vishwajit Kohli)
There is hardly any competition for the top spot.
Akshay Kumar owns the film.
Pick any scene from the film that you find funny and there is a 99 percent chance that he is either at the centre of the madness (like him proving to Zatara that he and his team are a bunch of bh**nds), he is just dropping sarcastic digs or him just reacting to others in a deadpan hilarious manner.
If he was ultra amusing as the washed-out superstar Rajiv, blissfully oblivious to everything happening around him, the film doubles the fun by casting Akshay in a Jawan-style double role as his father Vishwajit Kohli, an army officer who has been missing for 20 years.
Although the film once again falls back on the now-tired speech-defect gag to make the second character quirky, Akshay’s commitment almost makes it forgivable.
Almost.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff
