Sunday 11 December 2011

Cerebral Paltry



Desi Boyz

The story of a couple- two beefy hunks here-their bonding, their travails post recession in the US and the sub plots of their love lives-with their women thankfully, and a sweet as cotton candy nephew  needs no smattering of grey cells. Pink slips post recession leaves Nick Mathur (John Abraham) an investment banker, with Jerry aka Jignesh (Akshay Kumar), his jobless, dependant friend and his nephew, an indulgent fiancée Radhika (Deepika Padukone) and a lot of bills unpaid. After repeated attempts at finding a suitable job, easy money finds both friends becoming male escorts, chastity belt intact. Just as the picture begins to crawl out of gloom, they stare at a prospect of doom. A video leak has them uncovered and Jerry stands to lose custody of his orphaned nephew, while Nick, that of his beau. The rest of the film resolves this conflict.

Director Rohit Dhawan true to his lineage picks a four-line story, stuffs it with humour, pads it up with loads of glamour and, like his father David Dhawan in his prime, gets his editor scissor happy. Nitin Rokade, the editor, for his part, doesn’t give you the time to complain. Unlike a lot of his contemporaries Dhawan ensures that he is able to create an emotional connect with his characters be it the hero duo’s male bonding, the uncle-nephew relationship, even the love-hate relationship between Akshay Kumar and Deepika Padukone and lend a pleasant maturity to all the relationships. Renuka Kunzrus` dialogue with hilarious twists to clichéd lines acts a booster dose for Milap Jhaveri and Rohit Dhawan`s screenplay. Pritam`s music though repetitive and cacophonic serves its pit stop purpose.
  
Sure, the treatment is bizarre and so are some of the situations. These male escorts are more clothed than their handkerchief clad clients that too in a strip-tease party, there is the chastity belt and its Bharatiya connections for Bharatiya males here and a couple more that do hamper the flow, but there are some others like the bizarre courtroom climax that add to it. The Sanjay Dutt cameo, Chitrangda Singh smouldering in a small role and finally Akshay Kumar with his deadpan sense of humour and quick timing, its his chemistry with the other principal characters that propels the film. John Abraham in possibly his best act so far, at least gets to do a little more than what he is best at-show beefcake and mouth a few inanities.

Leave your brains behind for this one? Don’t, because chances are you’ll miss the wit and repartee in some of the crackling lines or the underlying humour in this testosterone filled, improbable, yet enjoyable comedy of fellas. Logic does get the boot in this zzz (zip, zap, zoom) ride here because male testosterone gets to navigate and drive the film (that too without kicks and punches) while its female counterpart takes the backseats here. But finally it is the superbly laid track (read the racy screenplay and witty lines) that gets you to the finish in super good time.