Business Rating: 3 stars
Star cast: Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Sunil Shetty, Irrfan Khan, Sonam Kapoor, Rimi Sen, Celina Jaitly.
What’s Good: The fast pace of the film; the dialogues; the performances.
What’s Bad: Nothing really. But the music and the climax could have been better.
Verdict: Thank You will keep everyone entertained.
Loo break: Not really.
Watch or Not? Of course!
UTV Motion Pictures’ Thank You (UA) is about three friends who cheat on their wives and how the wives teach them a lesson. Raj (Bobby Deol) and Sanjana (Sonam Kapoor) are happily married till she realises, her husband is cheating on her. Yogi (Sunil Shetty) has already been caught with another girl by his wife, Maya (Celina Jaitly). The third friend, Vikram (Irrfan Khan), also has a roving eye but he keeps his wife, Shivani (Rimi Sen), so petrified that she dare not question him.
Trouble for the three friends begins when Maya tells a suspicious Sanjana to engage the services of a private detective, Kishan (Akshay Kumar), to understand whether her hubby, Raj, is, in fact, womanising or not. Within no time, Kishan gets Sanjana evidence about Raj’s extra-marital affair. Before that, he also ensures to create a wedge between Yogi on the one hand and Raj and Vikram on the other by doctoring a recorded video clip of Yogi and Sanjana.
Anyway, Sanjana walks out on Raj who then tries to patch up with her. While Kishan moves in with Sanjana into her mother’s (Smita Jayakar) house, Raj has Vikram guiding him about what to do. Kishan tells Sanjana to feign an affair with him so that Raj would get jealous and mend his ways. On the other hand, the male chauvinist that Vikram is, he doesn’t let Raj bow down in front of Sanjana.
Raj and Vikram alongwith Yogi try to find out the identity of the person Sanjana is seen romancing but are unable to understand that he is Kishan. They mistake Sanjana’s new lover to be King (Mukesh Tiwari), an underworld don, and revolt against him, prompting his wife (Rakhi Vijan) to beat him black and blue.
Meanwhile, Shivani comes out of her fearful living and, with the help of Kishan, revolts against Vikram after getting all the property transferred in her own name.
What happens to the three friends? Do Raj and Sanjana come together again? Does Shivani forgive Vikram? What about Yogi and Maya?
Story and Screenplay – Thank You Movie Review
Anees Bazmee’s story is a laugh riot and so is the screenplay, penned by Anees Bazmee, Rajiv Kaul, Ikram Akhtar, Rajan Agarwal and Nisar Akhtar. Although there is not much freshness in the script and there are some continuity jerks, the comedy is so enjoyable that the audience doesn’t really mind. The film reminds a lot of No Entry and Masti so that even though the jokes and dialogues (exceptionally well-penned by Anees Bazmee, Rajiv Kaul, Ikram Akhtar, Rajan Agarwal and Nisar Akhtar) are fresh, the similarity comes in the way of the audience’s cent per cent enjoyment. Also, the story does get confusing at places.
Talking about individual sequences, the scenes between Vikram and Shivani are highlights and evoke great laughter. Yogi’s frustration has also been brought out so beautifully that scenes showing that raise a lot of laughter. In comparison, the climax looks a bit abrupt and hurried and not as funny as the rest of the drama. The scene in which Yogi’s voice is doctored in the recording studio is not at all convincing. There’s one major drawback about the screenplay: the three friends cheat on their wives but they don’t even feel guilty about this or, if they do, their guilt doesn’t come across to the audience till they stand exposed in front of their wives. This, for the audience, is not a very good feeling because, after all, they are the heroes of the drama. Showing the heroes indulging in ‘unheroic’ acts and, on top of it, not feeling sorry about the same, is not truly the best thing to do in a film.
Star Performances – Thank You Movie Review
Akshay Kumar does a wonderful job. He raises a lot of laughter with his free style of acting. Bobby Deol acts quite well. Sunil Shetty springs a wonderful surprise with a lovely performance. He brings the house down with laughter in at least five scenes. Irrfan Khan is mind-blowing. Every single scene he comes in is so full of fun and frolic that it’s a sheer delight to watch him. His typical style of dialogue delivery and his performance deserve the highest marks. Sonam Kapoor looks pretty in the second half and pitches in with a good performance. Rimi Sen is splendid. She complements Irrfan Khan just too wonderfully. Celina Jaitly gets very little scope as she is absent from a good part of the drama after the initial few reels. Her acting is appropriate. Mukesh Tiwari lends able support. Rakhi Vijan is her usual self. Smita Jayakar, Chahat Khanna (as Sonam’s sister) and Ranjeet are okay. Vidya Balan adds star value in a special appearance. Mallika Sherawat sizzles in the Razia song-dance. Others provide able support.
Direction, Music and Editing – Thank You Movie Review
Anees Bazmee’s direction is commendable. He keeps the audience involved and entertained throughout. Pritam Chakraborty’s music is fair and should’ve been far better. Full volume is a nice song. Razia is quite a good number. Pyar do pyar lo (remixed version of the old song) has pace. Pyar mein is alright. Song picturisations (Raju Sundaram and Ganesh Acharya) are eye-catching. Amitabh Bhattacharya, Ashish Pandit and Kumaar’s lyrics are okay. Background music (Sandeep Shirodkar) is very effective. Ravi Yadav’s cinematography captures the foreign locations well. Editing (Steven H. Bernard) is crisp.
The Last Word
On the whole, Thank You is an enjoyable entertainer and will keep the audience happy! Having said that, it must be added that it will be liked more by the masses than the classes. Considering its high cost on the one hand and its handsome recoveries from non-theatrical sources (satellite rights, audio rights etc.) on the other, it will prove to be a safe bet for all concerned.