No Thank You for “Thank You”

The combination of Anees Bazmai and Akshay Kumar has given us box office successes such as Singhh is Kingg and Welcome. There were many expectations from their latest offering Thank You, and all the previews and trailers were tantalisingly promising us a laugh riot.

Unfortunately none of those aspirations have been realised. Thank You has turned out to be quite a damp squib and regretfully we give it a thumbs down rating.

The Storyline:

Husbands with the glad eye – and the tendency to stray have been the mainstay of many a film storyline. This film attempts to combine together the stories of films such as No Entry and Hollywood’s Seven Year Itch. Irrfan Khan, Bobby Deol and Sunil Shetty are three philandering husbands who are unable to stop themselves from chasing all the available females around them. Their exasperated wives – Rimi Sen, Sonam Kapoor and Celina Jaitley hire thief/detective Akshay Kumar to keep a watch on their unfaithful husbands, not realising that the husbands have also hired the same detective. A similar storyline has been a part of most of Anees Bazmai’s films and it has been flogged to its barebones through each film. A highly exaggerated climax and the utterly demeaning sight of the women going back to their repentant husbands, all add to the implausible chronicle. The fact that five writers wrote the plot maybe the reason why there seems to be little coherence through the entire film.

The Cast:

Bobby, Suniel and Irrfan are all fine performers in their own right and have given us many great comedy performances. Akshay Kumar is probably one of the best leading actors in a comedy role. But in this film all of them seem to have made a mish-mash of their comedy timings. The slapstick lines are all there, so are the innuendoes, and the sleazy dialogues and events, but somehow they do not seem to gel together to make a great film. Only Rimi Sen, among the three lovely ladies, manages to make an impression, and that is mainly due to her interaction with Irrfan Khan.

The Direction:

Anees Bazmai – you have disappointed us with this latest presentation. The hilarity of Welcome and the total mindless yet enjoyable inanity of Singhh is Kingg are missing here. The first half does manage to retain your interest to some extent, but by the time the second half begins, you have either lost track or your mind. Our expectations were very high, but they have been unfulfilled.

The good and the bad points:

The first half of the film, as we have stated earlier, redeems the film to some extent. The comedy scenes are taut and well-timed and so are the performances. Mallika Sherawat’s attempts to do a Munni in this film was futile, and Vidya Balan, a very talented actress was wasted in the film.

The Music:

Pritam has given us some totally forgettable music for the film. The music scene has not been shaken up by the four remixed tracks and five original tracks of the film. This is definitely not one of his better works.

On the whole, we are sorry to say that this film gets only a thumbs down from us – and we hope that Anees Bazmai’s next offering will restore our faith in his directorial abilities.