A/N: I haven’t written a review for ages, and thought I should try again. By the same token, the writing is bound to be a bit rusty.
So any reviews or C&C would be appreciated. Thanks! :)
“People have been pouring in from morning, ” muses a bystander as he watches people quietly walk into a large house at the beginning of the movie.
“Yes, ” a shopkeeper agrees. “One needs a strong shoulder or two at a time like this.”
“Is someone dead?”
“No, he’s getting married.”
The cheerful, irreverent tone of the opening scene is strong in most of Masti, keeping it afloat when the movie begins to sink under plot contrivances a child could see through.
The movie focuses on the attempts of three young married men-- best friends, who are unhappy in their marriages and decide to spice things up.
The movie wisely chooses to focus first on Amar. Watching Ritesh Deshmukh suffering the horrors of the hen-pecked husband is amusing, but he could have easily been lost in a threesome where charmers Aftab Shivdasani and Vivek Oberoi make up the rest of the group. Instead, the movie takes time to familiarize him to us.
Prem (Aftab Shivdasani) is married to Tara Sharma, who looks lovely in saris, but simply doesn’t have time for her husband because she’s too busy praying. If the movie gave me her name, she appeared too infrequently for me to remember.
Meet (Vivek Oberoi) is married to Aanchal (Amrita Rao) who he despairingly describes as ‘the satellite who keeps watch over me 24 hours a day’.
When the three friends meet up after ages, they carefully feel each other out to see how the others are faring in their love lives. None of them are happy.
Prem, the ‘idea’ person (you know that guy or girl in your group who brainstorms the best) has an epiphany.
“Let’s have an affair, guys, ” he announces, and they all decide to compare notes after a month. Thirty days later, things have gotten complicated. They’re all somehow dating the same woman, Monica, played by Lara Dutta in a role where she’s obviously enjoying taking these guys for a ride.
Things get even more complicated when the three friends find themselves up their necks in a murder charge. That’s when Inspector Sikhander, played by Ajay Devgan hamming it up, appears.
I can just imagine Kajol watching Masti for the first time and giggling away at the screen as she watches her husband spoofing his previous roles as a scary inspector in hindi movies. Devgan relishes his role very much, and it shows.
Masti was really well edited. I especially thought so because I watched Paap right before this, and although that was an interesting movie, the editing was painful. In contrast, Masti tries hard to keep up the pace of the movie, and it succeeds until the last half hour, when our heroes spend way too much time beating themselves up over their idiocy.
Shivdasani is awesome in his role of Prem. His facial expressions are always appropriate to the scene, and often hilarious, like when he gives Meet a ‘what the hell’ look when his buddy is sweating on the cellphone.
Deshmukh’s Amar reminded me forcefully of Rob Schneider in Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo. His dotty expressions and ‘why me’ body language was hilarious. Vivek Oberoi didn’t impress so much. I’ve seen him be low-key and intense, and he’s very sexy then, but here he’s a character who makes broad gestures, sighs loudly, talks with much bravado and although he considers himself quite the player, often looks to his friends for help when all of them are caught up in events beyond their control. However, the three men have great chemistry together.
The running gags work well too. Amar’s neighbour at work is convinced that Amar and his friends are quite gay, and I had some laugh-out-loud moments over his hysteric denial. Like the time when Amar, caught in a car with Lara Dutta and his friends while the good doctor cruises by, discovers there really aren’t that many places to hide in the backseat of a car.
I won’t pretend that every bit pf the plot hangs together, but it’s nevertheless enetertaining. Do watch Masti, but if you have a choice, watch it with someone of your own generation. Most of the gags are PG-13 rated.