Hungama 2: Desperately seeking some laughs

Thing about watching films on OTT platforms is that how you watch them itself tells you a lot about how the films are. Some force you to rewind to moments, expressions, dialogues that reach out to you. Such can be the pull that you go back to them again and again. And then there are those like filmmaker Priyadarshan’s (and actor Shilpa Shetty) return to Bollywood—Hungama 2—that leave you at a loss for words. All they elicit from you is an eyeroll.

I watched the more than 2.5 hour long, so-called comedy, over five hours. That too with a straight face, without laughing so much as even once. This included a half hour pause during which some neighbourhood youngsters tried to rescue a kitten stranded on the ledge of the flat upstairs from my balcony.

Believe you me, I was more invested in what’s going to happen to the kitten next than the assortment of characters on screen. There’s not much to speculate about them anyhow, what with Hungama 2 being a predictable mix of two old Hindi films—Parichay and Ek Naari Ek Brahmachari which themselves were inspired from The Sound of Music and the Telegu film Brahmachari respectively.

So, you have Vaani (Pranitha Subhash) landing up unannounced with her kid at the home of stentorian Kapoor (Ashutosh Rana) whose life is being turned into hell by his own wayward grandchildren. Vaani claims her little daughter is Akash’s (Meezaan Jaffery), her college sweetheart who also happens to be Kapoor’s about-to-be-betrothed younger son.

Additionally, you have the sideshow in which Paresh Rawal reprises his suspicious husband act from Hungama; only novelty being that he finds a new wife Anjali in Shetty from Shoma Anand in the original. All in all its about people chasing people or running away from them while you couldn’t care less.

Cliched characters—like disciplinarian patriarch, scantily clad secretary, loyal cook, mandatory comic—loud acting, needless song-n-dance interludes, a cameo appearance by a star and Chura Ke Dil Mera 2.0 redux; Hungama 2 takes you back to the kind of filmmaking that you thought was way past its best by date. It feels totally out of place in the au courant OTT space. Pity that Meezaan, Javed Jaffrey’s son, had to be saddled with such an anachronous vehicle after debuting with an equally forgettable Malaal. We will wait to truly discover him another day, another film.