Housefull

Bollywood’s latest excuse for a comical assault on our sensibilities amounts to little more than a serious embarrassment. The thin plot involves shameless ‘homages’ to at least five Hollywood comedies including ‘Night at the Museum’, ‘Meet the Parents’ and, um, ‘You, Me and Dupree’. Will goofy Aarush (Kumar) find true love with Sandy (Padukone) or with his ‘childhood buddy’ Bob (Deshmukh)? Spiced up with semi-nude A-list leads, inexplicable ‘exotic’ locations and with cameos from a tiger, a parrot and the Royal family, this represents everything that’s reprehensible about commercial Hindi cinema. Most objectionable is the use of a running gay gag and a black baby to evoke laughter. Contrary to what one of its five songs says, I know what you should do: stay away from this loser!