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Release date:
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July 15, 2016
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Director:
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Indra Kumar
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Cast:
Language:
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Riteish Deshmukh,
Vivek Oberoi, Aftab Shivdasani, Urvashi Rautela, Pooja Bose, Mishti, Shraddha
Das, Sanjay Mishra
Hindi
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CAUTION: The
content of this review may be unsuitable for children. Parental guidance is
advised.
Great Grand Masti is the third in the
financially successful Masti series
directed by Indra Kumar and starring Riteish Deshmukh, Vivek Oberoi and Aftab
Shivdasani as friends Amar, Meet and Prem, three sexually frustrated married
men who are desperately in search of a roll in the hay with any and every
available good-looking young woman. In the latest instalment, they are kept
away from their marital beds by familial interference. Amar’s mother-in-law is
a meanie. Meet’s wife has an inexplicable connection with her twin brother (who
is a body builder) as a result of which her sibling gets turned on every time
her husband tries to make love to her. And Prem’s sister-in-law does not
realise just how hot she is.
When the men take
off on a break to find some action, they encounter the spirit of a beautiful woman
who is desperate to lose her virginity to one of them.
I watched the film this
morning. This is my review:
Cheap – check.
Juvenile – check.
Loud – check.
Rape joke – check.
Sexism directed at
women – check.
Ageism directed at
women, including a scene in which old ladies are described as “baasi paav” (stale bread) – check.
An obsession with
mammary glands, epitomised by a busty bai
from a town named Doodhwadi, which leads to an abundance of wisecracks about
milk (eww!) – check.
Degrading
objectification of women, including a song called Lipstick laga ke in which a male star drums a woman’s bum and sings
about “apple jaisi booty teri” –
check.
Reductive portrayal
of men as being slaves of their penises – check.
Erections so large
that they raise the height of a table at which a man is seated – check.
Rhyming dialogues –
check.
Classism – check.
A mockery of
disability – check.
Sense of sadness
because Indra Kumar once directed a fun and not low-brow slapstick comedy, the
Madhuri Dixit-starrer Raja in 1995 –
check.
Heartbreak because
Riteish Deshmukh is truly talented and one of Bollywood’s finest comedians, but
seems not to consider himself too good for this crass crap – check.
Sense of sadness at
the realisation that sweet Aftab Shivdasani was once a Farex baby and his
career struggles have brought him to this pass – check.
Vivek Oberoi going
goggle-eyed – check.
Sadness brought on
by the memory of Oberoi’s fantastic debut in Ram Gopal Varma’s 2002 film Company – check.
Assembly of dispensable actresses playing Amar,
Prem and Meet’s wives, who are so summarily written that they are indistinguishable
from each other – check.
Note: The only one of
Great Grand Masti’s young actresses with
a somewhat distinct identity is former beauty contest winner Urvashi Rautela in
the role of a perennially semi-nude ghost from Doodhwadi. She seems like she
just might have something to offer the world of cinema other than those
football-sized breasts that the camera and costume managers of this film are so
focused on, but if that is all the faith you have in your talent and screen
presence, Ms Rautela, then … sigh! … the choice is yours, of
course.
For the record,
cleverly handled slapstick humour can be fun even for serious film buffs who may
prefer a diet of Satyajit Ray and Abbas Kiarostami, but are also occasionally
willing to let their
hair down. Just check out the David Dhawan-Govinda
combination at their best and you will know what I mean. Indra Kumar’s Great Grand Masti though, is too lazy to
cash in on the comic timing of at least two actors in the cast who are
capable of being a scream when given a good script: Deshmukh and Sanjay Mishra.
There is little
that is different in this film except one genuinely amusing quip about female
infidelity and lesbianism, which is unexpected from an industry that otherwise
finds humour only in bed-hopping men while placing promiscuous women in the
dock and has barely acknowledged the existence of homosexual women in this
world. Surprise surprise, this particular scene is not tasteless. It proves
that Kumar possesses a quality not very common among humourists: the ability to
crack jokes about a marginalised group without being condescending, to laugh with people rather than at them.
He might have drawn
more on that gift if he did not have such a poor opinion of his potential
audience and was not aiming pointedly at the lowest common denominator. It’s
a pity that he takes the easy path. And so what we get is a regressive nod to Bhartiya sanskriti and misogyny in the middle of
this bottoms-and-bust fest. You see, sexually assertive women cannot but be witches and phantoms. Such women must be tamed, not satisfied. And the one
thing even a horny, unfaithful Indian husband can bank upon to save him from
death – or paranormal attacks – is a Karva Chauth vrat by a virtuous wife.
Medieval – check.
Hypocritical –
check.
Cliched – check.
Crude – check.
Calls itself an “adult
comedy” but is really directed at hormonally charged teenaged boys with a
limited IQ (not the bright ones) – check.
Optimistic critic who
was traumatised by Grand Masti but
still dutifully watched Great Grand Masti
in the hope that this time Kumar might have come up with something worthwhile –
check.
Rating
(out of five): -10 stars
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CBFC Rating (India):
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A
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Running time:
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127 minutes
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This
review has also been published on Firstpost:
Related
link: Anna M.M. Vetticad’s review of Grand Masti
