Housefull
5
is
the
most
idiotic
thing
I’ve
watched
this
year,
asserts
Sukanya
Verma.
Ask
me
the
plot
of
the
last
four
Housefull
movies
and
all
I
can
recall
are
crowded
frames
filled
with
cringey,
racist
humour
glorifying
dumb
blokes,
dim-witted
women,
scowling
fathers,
random
animals
and
rampant
innuendoes
designed
to
appease
the
lowest
common
denominator
in
the
audience.
Like
or
loathe,
the
shtick
is
raking
in
the
moolah
and
now
there’s
a
fifth
film
in
the
franchise
keeping
up
its
tradition
of
revelling
in
stupidity
and
birdbrain
imagination.
Only
Housefull
5
is
so
rubbish,
you’d
think
none
of
the
actors,
17
or
so
of
them,
have
any
inkling
as
to
where
the
script
is
heading
and
take
the
extempore
challenge
too
far.
Out
of
ideas
for
a
while
now
and
resorting
to
gimmicks
like
two
endings
—
luring
viewers
into
double
viewings
and
ordeal
—
this
Tarun
Mansukhani
directed
fool
fest,
is
the
most
idiotic
thing
I’ve
watched
this
year
so
far.
Set
around
a
cruise
ship
called
Aiee,
as
an
in-joke
alluding
to
its
owner
Ranjeet
and
his
lustfully
muttered
catchword,
Housefull
5
begins
like
a
slasher
movie
with
a
masked
man
stabbing
an
allergy-plagued
doctor
on
board.
Cut
to
a
dead
Ranjeet’s
hologram
announcing
his
will
and
the
inheritor
of
all
his
billion
dollar
wealth
—
much
to
the
dismay
of
his
shady-looking
board
of
directors
(Chitrangada
Singh,
Shreyas
Talpade,
Dino
Morea
and
Fardeen
Khan)
that
includes
a
son
from
his
second
wife.
An
Amar
Akbar
Anthony
trio
of
Jollys
pop
up
out
of
thin
air
—
Akshay
Kumar,
Abhishek
Bachchan,
Riteish
Deshmukh
—
claiming
their
right
to
the
fortune
with
a
respective
spouse
in
tow
hailing
from
Sri
Lanka,
Nepal
and
Afghanistan
(Jacqueline
Fernandez,
Nargis
Fakhri,
Sonam
Bajwa)
for
reasons
best
known
to
its
makers.
Half
an
hour
is
squandered
in
introducing
this
cacophonous
gathering,
two
seconds
in
forgetting
a
man
has
died,
another
murdered,
to
break
into
one
raucous
group
song
after
another,
so
identical
that
nothing
changes
except
the
colour
of
the
sequins
in
the
costumes.
Where
the
rest
of
the
crew
and
guests
disappear
after
these
song
and
dance
sessions,
don’t
ask.
They’re
like
a
living
embodiment
of
‘now
you
see
me
now
you
don’t’.
The
movie
treats
logic
like
a
disease
and
avoids
it
at
all
costs.
There’s
no
how
or
why
to
a
single
appearance
or
occurrence,
it’s
just
there.
Problem
is
how
unamusing
this
randomness
is.
Like
when
Sanjay
Dutt
and
Jackie
Shroff
show
up
as
Bhiddu
and
Babu
with
Khalnayak‘s
signature
tune
playing
in
the
background,
we
are
expected
to
be
rolling
in
the
aisles
because
they
swapped
names?
Yawn
is
more
like
it.
There’s
Nana
Patekar
too,
doing
a
London
supercop
carrying
a
Marathi
manoos
hangover
with
such
baffled
eyes,
it’s
like
he
was
woken
up
from
deep
slumber
to
deliver
a
shot.
Between
its
casual
racism,
sexism,
cat
fights,
blown-up
birds
avenging
their
dads
from
previous
prequels
and
never-ending
d%^&
jokes
that
includes
pubic
hair
gags
and
suffering
the
usually
reliable
Johnny
Lever
in
near
buff,
Housefull
5‘s
semi-sex
comedy
in
a
whodunit’s
body
passes
off
cringe
for
comic.
There
is
a
flock
of
actors
rambling
around
yet
not
a
single
performance
resisting
the
urge
to
be
a
loud
caricature.
The
girls
have
it
worst
amidst
its
passing-the-parcel
of
partners
scenario
and
scene
after
scene
of
their
skimpily-clad
beings
giving
the
camera’s
male
gaze
abundant
reason
to
fixate
on
their
curves
and
skin
show.
A
ex-Housefull
alumnus
shows
up
at
the
fag
end
of
its
Priyadarshan-style
chaos
filled
climax
stating
I
don’t
care.
Neither
do
I
about
this
headache
named
Housefoosss.
Housefull
5
Review
Rediff
Rating:
