PHIR HERA PHERI: I wish they were content with their first HERA PHERI!

When Hera Pheri had released a few years back with almost nil publicity and hype around it, it went on to crash box office records and laughed its way into the hearts of millions of fans who still watch the film twice a year on Television. Hera Pheri succeeded in giving us what can be safely called a cult comedy bollywood film. Obviously the sequel, Phir Hera Pheri was eagerly awaited and the mammoth box office collections over the first weekend just go a step further to cement the fact that PHP is one of the most anticipated films of the year. So the question on everybody’s mind is… Is PHP worth it? Does it live the legacy of its amazingly funny and well crafted predecessor?

The answer unfortunately is a big NO. Why? Read on.

PHP begins with an item number starring a majorly miscast Dia Mirza alongwith the opening credits. We can see Paresh Rawal, dressed in a rich dhoti-kurta armed with gold ornaments, splurging extraordinarily high amounts of money as she garners ceetees from the gallery for her thumkas and latkas. This just establishes the fact that the trio (Paresh ‘i-am-cast-only-in-comedies’ Rawal, Akshay ‘What-am-I-doing-here?’ Kumar and Suneil ‘I-am-the-most-wooden-actor-of all times’ Shetty) have become very rich from their endeavor in the first installment of HERA PHERI. They have a palatial bungalow complete with a swimming pool and a swanky troupe of cars. Though all this cannot be afforded in the amount of money they made in HP, we still throw logic out of the window and believe that they actually got rich. Anyways, what happens next is that Akshay Kumar invests all their property and cash in a Double-your-money scheme which is operated by Bipasha Basu. In order to fulfil the basic investment 1 crore formula Akshay ropes in an underworld don’s sidekick Rajpal Yadav. Now as expected, Bipasha turns out to be a con-woman and thus the trio are back on the streets. As Underworld, drug peddlers get involved in the scene, PHP reaches its finale in true Priyan style. Confusion surmounts as everything comes together in a circus to lead to what the director thought was a ‘hilarious’ climax.

PHP fails majorly because it doesn’t make you laugh. It tries very hard but succeeds only in a couple of sequences. Though PHP assures you at least 5 genuine laughs, they are not worthy of the 3 hours you dedicate to the film. The climax in the circus is easily the most illogical and stupid one ever witnessed on the Indian screen, we don’t enjoy it, except for the absolutely hilarious sequence in the house of mirrors.

Technically the film doesn’t look nice. It has tacky cinematography and lighting errors are blatantly eminent throughout the films. Screenplay-wise, Writer-Director Neeraj Vora tries to package in almost all ingredients of a masala film in this resulting into a chaotic, half baked effort. The second half of the film tests your patience and is easily one of the worst movie second halves in recent times. Editing is shoddy. Background music as well as songs are totally crappy as neither have the power to sustain the going ons. Direction wise, Neeraj Vora is just about OK.

Performance wise, none of the stellar star-cast stay with you after the show is over. Paresh Rawal hams. Akshay Kumar hams. Suniel Shetty doesn’t do much but groan his dialogues and do his routine ‘not-doing-anything’. Bipasha and Rimi are just glam dolls of the enterprise. Rajpal Yadav is sincere but not competent. Johhny Lever is wasted. The supporting cast is not effective either.

All in all, PHP is not worth the 50 bucks you would spend on it. Wait till it comes on TV. The advantage of watching it on TV is that atleast you can change channels when you get bored.

NOT RECOMMENDED.

My Rating: * 1/2