SI-IOCK-ALLS

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Yo Yo Honey Singh's numbers when the h ead priest is on vacation

Every member of the cast (and crew ) seem to be in a vacation mood. Many of the gags stretch themselves out l anguorous l y as though the director commanded the camera to roll and then went off to sleep.

Saif and Riteish vac il late between being spoofy and spiffy with some help from Ram Kapoor who gets to play two characters, one of them suffering from what the medical experts on board for this specialized comedy refer to as "OCD Level 3''.

Riteish, a regular in Sajid Khan's cinema with titles beginning with "H': makes a better impression than Saifwho tries hard to show us he's in the fun nobrainer mood Saif is clearly out of his depths i ndulging in the sl apstick lu nacy of a world that has no l ogic except to create a chaotic humour out of a stockpile of mistaken identities

Oh, there are three ladi es in the sh ow who wriggle and pout whenever the p l ot is in doubt (which, as you can tell from the nature of the material, is very often) Even the opposite -sexiness is handled more engagingly in the hands and chests of the three heroes wooing their own doubles i n voluptuous drag Wh i le Saifwoos Riteish in drag and v i ce versa, bizarrely Ram Kapoor woo es himself in drag to create a kind of auto-eroticism that has no bearing on the fi lm's predominant

Mood Of Sexual Innocence

AREEL UNDER Tl-IE FARCE "ft)

To shock us, there are lots of gay jokes popping up when you least expect them to, as though the director wants to remind us that political incorrectness is not only about mistaken identities but a lso about identity crises

Don't even try to make sense of the world that Sajid Khan bui l ds. Th e sand cast l e of goofiness can at any time be washed away by the high t ide. The director doesn't really care

Sajid Khan takes potshots at himself and his sister Far ah Khan by showing Himmatwala and Tees Maar Khan as part of torture curriculum in the mental asylum Don't be surprised if the DVD of Humshaka/s shows up in Humshakals 2 as a torture device

In one ofthe rare genuinel y funny sequences, Saif and Riteish try to impress Ram Kapoor by pulling off the tablecloth from a table tilled with food, promising as they do, that nothi ng w i ll spi ll.

Of course all the food comes crashing down But does the fear of fa l ling ever hold back the broad comedy of ill manners which Bollywood thinks is funny?

Wish we had as much fun watching this fi l m as the team seems to have had maki ng it Saif is shown to be a bad stand - up comedian The film never outgrows its hero's character 's cravi ng to make people l augh.

SUBHASH K JHA