Phir,Hera Pheri ?. Review on Phir Hera Pheri

Foreword

Lets just face the fact that Bollywood doesn't know how to treat sequels. Sequels generally bank on the success of the original or are delegated to over-zealous amateurish directors who are given a huge canvas and a huger budget as well as a star-studded cast to play around with.

History is witness that such glorious experiments have miserably failed.

Now you'll holler at me for getting my facts wrong- That 'Phir Hera Pheri' is not a sequel in the technical sense of the word. The director has changed from the visionary Priyadarshan to the crass,scatological Neeraj Vora, that I should not be comparing this offering with the original cult hit.

But I ask you why shouldn't I ?

If you are creating a product based on a super-successful franchise, people are expecting things beyond the ones that the original offered. And letting them down is a mistake. A huge one at that.

In all fairness, I do agree that every director makes films according to his own vision.

But Neeraj Vora seems to be DESPERATE to make us laugh.

Comedy films shouldn't evoke bitterness at every joke hurled at an unsuspecting audience.

The Review

The film opens to a raunchy number "pyar ki chatni chata de piya" (I hope I got the name right. I was too busy staring at the skin fest unleashed by Diya Mirza, which was more bizarre than the lyrics)

I won't talk about how this song or for that matter other songs are misplaced and spring up when you least expect them to,marring the "FLOW" of the story.

Raju,Shyam and Babu Bhaiya are now rich following the spate of events in Hera Pheri.

While trying to adjust to the feeling of been rich (Paresh Rawal is HILARIOUS) Babu Bhaiya elicits unprovoked laughter by his antics :the bathing scene deserves a special mention.

Raju is still his greedy self wanting more than what is in hand.And so goes the premise :

A chit fund company promising to double the amount invested (headed by the sexy Bipasha Basu )allures Raju and Co. to gather in all their worth and put all the amount in Anuradha's (Bips) hands.

A minimum investment of a crore is mandatory,so Raju gathers funds from a local Bhai Pappu (Rajpal Yadav at his sincere best) and sells off his palatial house.

Predictably,the chit fund company sacks them of their riches and then its back on the road for Raju,Shyam and Babu Bhaiya.Their troubles only multiply from here as Pappu brings in his mentor

Tiwari "Totla" Bhai (Sharat Saxena,the mandatory handicap) into the fracas. Tiwari now demands double the amount (40 lakhs) within 3 days.

Babu Bhaiya' s neighbor (the ubiquitous Johnny Lever,brilliant) is busy trying to knock off another Bhai (Milind Gunaji) and settle scores with him. Throw in Totla Tiwari and Vora makes a pathetic attempt to copy Guy Ritchie's cult heist caper "Lock,Stock and Two Smoking Barrels.".

(Sunil Pal as Johnny's sidekick is wasted, Manoj Joshi as the dope sniffing Kachra Seth adds more confusion to the already convoluted plot)

I don't know what Vora was thinking when he throws in yet more characters in the second half,whether to cover up for his inability to direct comedy or to justify the wasted presence of an overdose of comic talent. Jokes become rife with utter and complete nonsense (typical of Vora) and seem to be trying desperately to appease 5-6 year old kids.

The Kook-Doo-Koo scene in the backdrop of the Circus, the gorilla chasing Johnny and the ever-so mandatory mayhem (gangs chasing one another and our protagonists). It would have all been justified to an extent had Vora tried to keep the plot streamlined. He tries to copy Priyadarshan in the end and you expect me NOT to be furious at his failure in doing so ?

Given that most of the jokes are taken directly from Hera Pheri without any remorse or change, you'd expect this caper to live up to the original. But Vora forces so much down the audience throats that it becomes difficult to even choke on the "Situational-Physical-Whatever" comedy.

Well so much for ruining the hype generated around it. David Dhavan does a wonderful job sometimes.But Neeraj Vora,goddamn him.

Phir Hera Pheri, painfully disappointing.