Housefull 5 is a no-brainer slapstick comedy that is high on overexposure of skin show and the actresses reduced merely as a glamour quotient. At times the males mouthing crude and tasteless (supposed to be humorous) jokes on female characters. There is a strand of it being a suspense thriller towards the end, which too isn’t effectively conveyed. It is replete with crude and nasty comedy.
This fifth film of the Housefull sequel completely lacks the finesse, class and crisp humour of it’s earlier films, particularly the first two parts. One misses the original Batuk Patel (Boman Irani). In retrospect the earlier Housefull films delivered loud laughs, wild confusion and were rollercoaster comedies with slapstick humour and witty one-liners.
A London-based billionaire, owner of a luxurious Cruise dies mysteriously during his birthday celebrations on the cruise. As per his will, after he passes away, the board of directors of his company has to hand in the responsibilities of running the company to his son, Jolly. With none of them aware about the identity of Jolly who was scheduled to will board the cruise for birthday celebrations at 3 pm. Not one, but three three different men (Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh and Abhishek Bachchan) claiming to be Jolly stake their claim on this multi-billion empire.
Among the lead cast it was painful to watch the pathetic veterans, which could have livened up with a handful of young guys. A redeeming factor is the infusion of peppy eye-candies Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Sonam Bajwa and Soundarya Sharma. However even these alluring girls have been maliciously portrayed. To give an example, there is a particular sequence in the movie where the three lead actresses crawl through an overhead duct somewhat resembling an air-conditioning duct to get into a laboratory which overdoes the objectification of a woman’s body.
Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh stay devoted to their characters. Nana Patekar is excellent in his comic timing. For some raunchiness it is the girls Jacqueline Fernandez, Sonam Bajwa, Nargis Fakhri and Soundarya Sharma have nothing to express with them infused into the story for alluring the viewer. The classy Chitrangada Singh has been given somewhat meaningful performance. Jackie Shroff and Sanjay Dutt as eccentric cop duo do not impress at all. The biggest disappointment is that most funny man of Housefull films – Aakhri Pasta (Chunky Panday) is just sidelined with just a few crude and tawdry jokes.
Speaking about the film’s music, it is these 3 songs Dil e Nadaan, Qayamat and Lal Paree that stand out visually adding tempo to the cruise party with colour and glamour. The standards of earlier previous Housefulls that were funny and entertaining, it has deteriorated with extremely crass humour at least in a couple of scenes in this film. With forced humour, this overcrowded adult comedy becomes unbearable towards the end with it’s run time of 165 minutes.
What worked in the initial Housefull films about 15 years ago, need not work in present dynamic times. The film completely lacks maturity in humour, which has evolved rapidly in the recent times.
Cast of Housefull 5:
Akshay Kumar as Julius (Jolly)
Riteish Deshmukh as Jalabuddin (Jolly)
Abhishek Bachchan as Jalbhushan (Jolly)
Jacqueline Fernandez as Sasikala
Sonam Bajwa as Zara
Nargis Fakhri as Kaanchi
Sanjay Dutt as Bhidu, police officer
Jackie Shroff as Baba, police officer
Nana Patekar as Dhagdu (Interpol Chief)
Chunky Panday as Aakhri Pasta
Fardeen Khan as Dev
Shreyas Talpade as Shiraz
Dino Morea as Bedi
Ranjeet as Ranjeet Dobriyal
Johnny Lever as Batuk Patel
Chitrangda Singh as Maya
Soundarya Sharma as Lucy
Nikitin Dheer as Captain Sameer
Credits of Housefull 5:
Production company – Nadiadwala Grandson Entertainment
Directed by Tarun Mansukhani
Written by Farhad Samji, Tarun Mansukhani
Story & Screenplay – Sajid Nadiadwala
Produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, Warda Nadiadwala, Firuzi Khan
Cinematography – V. Manikandan
Edited by Rameshwar S. Bhagat
Music by Julius Packiam
Songs – Yo Yo Honey Singh, White Noise Collectives, Tanishk Bagchi, Kratex, Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy, Sajid–Wajid, Julius Packiam