Housefull 3 is about three Indian heiresses in London. Don’t ask me what their names are. These aren’t characters. They are props. In the climax sequence, the film’s hero Akshay Kumar refers to them as maal. Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri and Lisa Haydon play the maal. Their brief probably was: look attractive and interchangeable.Since the heiresses have grown up in London, their Hindi is faulty. At one point, one of them says, ‘Seriously guys, akhrot ho kya?’ Which she helpfully translates as: ‘Are you guys nuts?’
This film definitely qualifies as an akhrot. Housefull 3 is an equal-opportunity offender – it’s racist, sexist and willfully rude about people who are differently abled. But the worst sin, in my book, is that it’s just not funny. Housefull 3 has been co-written and directed by the brothers Sajid and Farhad. The two have had much success writing films like Bol Bachchan(2012), Singham(2011) and Chennai Express(2013). Their brand of humour is determinedly low-IQ, but at their best they can make you laugh out loud. Here, they take on a successful franchise but the jokes are consistently limp.