Happy New Year – Good Entertainer if you are willing to participate in it.

With Happy New Year, Farah Khan is back in her form. She knows her USP well- enough to incorporate it well into a Bollywood entertainer. Unabashedly cheeky, offensive in some places, but if taken lightly can give the audiences a good time while watching this typical Bollywood masala movie.

With its grand setting in Dubai, Happy New Year tells the story of six losers, from various walks of life, united by the agenda of pulling off the biggest diamond heist.  The story offers nothing new to the audiences, borrowing instances and situations which were far commonly known to the Hindi cinema goers of the 70’s and 80’s.  Each character is supposedly shown to be a loser in his/her own style. From an inquisitive mind of a hacker, who is “uncool” enough to get laid (played by Vivaan Shah) to the angry young man Sonu Sood, who becomes “violent” on hearing anything offensive said against his beloved mother. There are more such absurd yet entertaining scenes in the film, which may make you laugh or cheer up, but certainly can’t be intolerable for a viewer, looking for sense and meaning in this entertainment driven narrative.

The story may lack logic in some instances, but it is powerful enough to run a three hour commercial pot boiler. It is interesting to see how the writing department of the film – Althea Kaushal, Farah Khan, Mayur Puri have brainstormed enough to add twists and turns in the plot, which certainly makes your heart beat faster, as a well-wisher for the team, headed by Charlie.

Despite this, the film has made dance to be one of the important ingredients of the film. This is where the character of Deepika Padukona, who plays the role of Mohini, a bar dancer who dances exceedingly well, shines like a typical Bollywood entertainer. She looks ravishing in some of the sequences, how ever, the songs are not as good as the earlier films of Farah Khan. But the particular song, “Manwa Lagey” has moments of melody with lyrics penned down by Irshad Kamil.

SRK plays the leading hero of the film – Charlie. It has got to be his film. For the fans of SRK, there is action and drama to look for with doses of romance and humour. He is the pop philosopher of the film, giving the audiences, anecdotes of how life gives one single opportunity to losers to change the fate of their lives. Abhishek Bachchan, who plays the role of Nandu, is  full of energy . He is complimented well with the sincere performance of Boman Irani, who is naturally funny in the film, with the character of a middle aged man - Tammy, behaving like an innocent and naïve teenager. 

There’s a very sweet equation that Tammy shares with his mother, Daisy Irani (good to see her after a long time) who plays the role of nagging mother to him. Her small appearance is effective in the film.

Jackie Shroff plays the role of Charan Groover, the antagonist in the film, who doesn’t really have such moments to offer in the film, yet plays his role with a fine performance. 

Yes – Happy New Year lacks logic,  is offensive in places, has high exaggerated doses of patriotism, but it isn’t trying to marvel you with its artistry or intellect either. It is almost like going to a party where you are willing to take yourself less seriously and enjoy whatever that comes in your way. If you are okay with watching an over the top song,dance,action, drama then Happy New Year is going to provide a gala time to its viewer. 

By Sourav