I have no allergies when it comes to the genre of the movie. I can watch anything as long as it entertains. Comedy is one genre that appeals to everyone. But it is probably the hardest thing to make people laugh. Over the years Bollywood has given some great comic movies. These movies have a specific type of comedies. But Pagalpanti tries too many types at once; Slapstick, Fantasy, Romantic, action, Horror, Action comedy, and whatnot. Despite all the efforts it falls flat.
It tries to tell the story of 3 friends who try to be rich by constantly doing some kind of business that never works. They are unlucky for anyone around them but in the end, they are successful to become rich by robbing Niraj Modi (Read Nirav Modi here) who has run away from India with billions of rupees. The plot is interesting and could have been funny but the below IQ level jokes and childish scenes ruin the fun. Even the patriotic dose, in the end, gets depleted in this clutter. The comedy scene on the glue truck and climax especially are very painful to watch and these are the longest scenes of the movie.
No actors deliver any timing on the jokes whatsoever. So many years, John Abraham still trying to act funny. Only Saurabh Shukla and Arshad Warsi manage to make you laugh at times. The heroines are as usual eye candies. The songs are taken from the old movies of 90’s and remixed. They come whenever the director feels like. Despite being multi starrer and big-budget movie, can’t imagine the CGI could be so bogus.
Pagalpanti has a tagline which says, ‘DIMAAG MAT LAGAANA KYUNKI INMEIN HAI NAHI.’ So I went with the same mindset, but even then it thwarted me. Director/Co-writer Anees Bazmee has a reputation of giving some absurd comedies in the past like Singh Is King, Mubarkan and few others. This one went few levels below the standard of his past work. It’s nothing but 2.5 hours of mental torture.
