Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos

Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Vir Das, Mona Singh, Mithila Palkar, Sharib Hashmi

Director: Vir Das & Kavi Shastri

What’s Good: I liked Mona Singh—she is the saving face of the film!

What’s Bad: Everything and everybody else. Seriously.

Loo Break: Loo and behold, almost the entire movie!

Watch or Not?: If you have money to splurge, only then!

Language: Hindi

Available On: Theatrical release

Runtime: 119 Minutes

User Rating:

A bumbling Britisher, Happy Patel, who loves cooking, finds that his mother was Indian just before being sent on a spy mission to India. He must now rescue a high-profile scientist from Goa’s notorious crime czarina, known as Mama. He achieves that, but not before getting entangled in a mess. What’s worse, he traps the audience in his torturous shenanigans.

Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos Movie Review: Script Analysis

The script tries its best to be funny by its own warped parameters: it has “British” and even cheap American humor, and revels in tapori Mumbaiyya Hindi lines. It makes Mumbai and Goa one in terms of cultural setup. There is food, and there is a pretense at a social message, condemning skin-color shaming and calling out the Indian obsession with fairness creams.

The film starts with Jimmy’s (Aamir Khan) murder in Panjore, Goa. The narrative then temporarily shifts to the UK, where a mission is set in motion to eliminate (as per the addlepated plot by Vir Das and Amogh Ranadive) the lady don Mama (Mona Singh) and save the scientist (Maya Rachel Mcmanus). But actually, minute by minute, the film assassinates the viewers’ interest, involvement, and alertness (I had to fight sleep!) and, finally, mercilessly flogs even their fatigue quotient with one moronic twist after another.

The dialogues try to keep things “punny” throughout, thanks to Happy Patel not knowing “Indian” Hindi: most of the puns that elicited sporadic titters in the theater were double entendres and sexual innuendos. We also realize that this is the worst form of a “crossover” film, a species that was rampant about 20 years ago and gave us occasional gems like Monsoon Wedding and Bend It Like Beckham.

We have everything thrust in here in the haloed name of goofy comedy: a cooking reality show with the real Sanjeev Kapoor, a gig by the real Ash King, a dream song sequence between lovebirds Happy and dancer Rupa (Mithila Parkar), and also three “sternly funny” female (yes, I am not joking) police inspectors, who talk in (untranslated) Marathi. For non-Marathi audiences, this is as bad as the rampant use of untranslated Punjabi dialogues and music in our movies is for non-Punjabi audiences.

As for the actual “joking”, there are dollops of cringe humor, like Happy Patel being called “Dev Patel” because of his British nativity, and the mincemeat made of Hindi throughout, in as many forced ways as possible.

Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos Movie Review: Star Performance

Mona Singh’s expressions and demeanor are a riot in this deranged mélange, but cannot undo the damage. Sharib Hashmi as Geet, Shrushti Tawade as Roxy, and everyone else either hams or shows total apathy, and who’s to blame them?

Imran Khan’s “comeback” isn’t one, actually. Aamir Khan is alright, as is Mithila Parkar. Vir Das’s zombie-like expressions only prove that stand-up comedy isn’t film acting, unless you are Kapil Sharma.