Writer: Janak

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Watch this if you liked: “Golmaal”, “All The Best”, “Hey Baby”

"Housefull" is a quite similar to 1998's Tamil remake "Kathala Kathala". It's a story about Bob (Ritesh Deskmukh) and Hetal (Lara Dutta) who works at a London casino. Suddenly, Bob's friend Aarush (Akshay Kumar) moves in with them, bringing along all his bad luck. Aarush, who believes his jinx can only end by finding his true love, gets it on with seductive Devika (Jiah Khan) with the help of Bob and Hetal, only to realise during his honeymoon in Italy that he has found the one he really wants in sexy Sandy (Deepika Padukone).

Confused, he brings both of them back to Bob's home and thing gets more complicated with the arrival of Major Krishna Rao (Arjun Rampal) and Batuk Patel (Boman Irani) as well. Who are Major Krishna Rao and Batuk Patel? Watch the fun and chaos to find out what really happens in "Housefull", which incidentally has filled the house completely with a bunch of crazy yet colourful characters.

In this film, Akshay Kumar does a good job but it seems that the characters he chooses lately are all the same kind. Instead, Ritesh Deskhmukh and Boman Irani provide more laughter as their comedy timing is perfect in many parts. Deepika Padukone and Lara Dutta look fresh and seductive as ever which is good news for the male audience. There is also a list of special appearances by many well known Hollywood stars from time to time but let's keep that a surprise.

Director Sajid Khan did not change the storyline much from the Tamil version. Though he has not entirely let audience down, one does wish he could have opted for a more interesting plot. To give him credit (he also wrote the film), at least managed to create many funny moments that the cast took on comfortably. The director also does borrow generously from a number of Hollywood comedies and also adds a little melodrama in between the slapstick.

The film's background was mostly shot in London and Italy which has many common scenic backgrounds in previous Bollywood films so that's nothing to shout out. The scenes are actually shots in the house. As for the songs, music director Shankar-Ehsan-Loy produced some decent, positive tunes. All the songs are quite listenable but its better when it's presented when one is watching the film. There is also a remake of Amitabh Bachan's 80s song from his film "Laawaris" which is picturised on the lead actors this time around.

Overall, Housefull is not a complete laugh-out-loud comedy but it is an entertaining enough family watch.

Cinema Online, 04 May 2010