It seems like comedies refuse to go out of style at the box-office, this in spite of some recent disastrous comedy flicks. Comedy is once again the flavour of the week, with two comedy films in tow. Phir Hera Pheri is a comedy sequel to Hera Pheri. The latter was a laughaton and a super hit at the box-office. With the notion that sequels don’t work at the box-office, Phir Hera Pheri seems to be taking a chance with its luck. However after a long gap bollywood and the masses too will perhaps heave a sigh of relief as this is the first sequel that actually works. Phir Hera Pheri is a madhouse comic, crazy, chaotic laugh riot.
The first part of Hera Pheri was directed by Priyadarshan; however the sequel, Phir Hera Pheri is directed by Neeraj Vora who has penned the dialogues for the earlier version along with several other hit comedies by Priyadarshan. Vora sticks to the basic essence that was seen in the earlier part. Vora uses the tried and tested formula of utter madness, illogical and irrational sequences, co-incidences, chaotic sequences and many many characters. The film has been produced by Feroz Nadiadwala and stars the original threesome characters Paresh Rawal as Baburao, Akshay Kumar as Raju and Sunil Shetty as Shyam. Two new female characters have been introduced, Rimi Sen plays Anjali and Bipasha Basu plays Anuradha. Himesh Reshammiya is the music director.
The story begins where Hera Pheri left off. Nana Patekar’s voiceover refreshes the audiences’ memory of the characters and a bit of the earlier plot. Hera Pheri ended with the three musketeers Baburao, Raju and Shyam getting a handsome reward each for saving the granddaughter of a rich man. Now in the sequel the story moves ahead, what will the three stooges do with their money? Each of them wants to use his money wisely and they also want to make more money. Raju comes up with a plan of investing his money in a chit fund scheme after Anuradha convinces him that it is a wise investment. But Raju needs a sum of Rs 1 crore, so he has no choice but to convince Baburao and Shyam to invest their money too. At first the two are reluctant but later they relent and each of them contributes Rs 10 lakhs. Now they have 30 lakhs and Raju gets a local goon Pappu(Rajpal Yadav) to invest another 20 lakhs which he himself has borrowed from his boss.
Raju then decides to sell the bungalow for 50 lakhs to a Parsi man and get the remaining money. They then invest the 1 crore in the chit fund company, unfortunately three weeks later they realize the company is a fraud and has duped many people on the pretext of doubling their incomes. Now Pappu is after Raju for his money as his boss whom he has borrowed the money from has threatened to kill him. Raju also learns that Anuradha is a bar dancer, to make matters worse he is smitten by the beautiful Anjali who is Pappu’s sister. Baburao, Shyam and Raju are back in their poor stinking chawl, they are constantly bickering amongst themselves. Everyone seems to be running after the other.
The film is a complete laugh riot, a masala film which caters to the masses. The chemistry between the three lead characters of Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Sunil Shetty has been retained right through Phir Hera Pheri; their constant bickering are some of the best scenes in the film. There are plenty of funny moments and the antics of the characters will definitely keep you swirling with laughter right through the film. The film does not have an extremely different approach from other hit comedy films, it is the same mad hatter chaotic sequences, but it is this sameness which Vora has retained that makes the flick an entertaining comedy. Also Vora’s execution and his witty dialogues have managed to create the desired impact.
The film has good decent music by Himesh Reshammiya; two songs ‘Yaad Sataye Teri’ and the title track stand out. The script writing by Neeraj Vora has been done keeping the masses tastes in mind. The climax as usual has something really loud and perhaps a little unbelievable too. But at the same time the climax which is a chase sequence in a circus does have its entertaining value. Cinematography is average. Performances by the actors range from excellent to average.
However, the music though interesting also comes as an interruption, also the second half introduces many more characters which at times is annoying. The actresses seem to be placed merely as eye-candy and the romantic track does not get ample scope in the film which is dominated by the comic aspect. There are no doubt some illogical and irrational situations, but one tends to overlook them for the bigger picture. The songs which are shot at foreign locations seem to hold no place, but are there as part of the entertaining value. But these are minor discrepancies which will barely taint the popularity of the film.
Paresh Rawal is excellent and outshines everyone with his comic antics. His performance is definitely the best and in spite of playing comic characters umpteen number of times, the actor only seems to be getting better with every film. Akshay Kumar too is good and has some really entertaining parts in the film. He is fun to watch in his comic avatar; Sunil Shetty is competent enough in his role. Rajpal Yadav seems a bit over the top at times, but nonetheless gives a competent performance. Sharat Saxena and Johny Lever are average in their performances. Bipasha and Rimi barely have substantial roles in the film.
The film is an entertaining comedy that promises to give you plenty of laughs. It is a total timepass, funfilled film that will appeal mostly to the masses who don’t mind being served the same type of fare just as long as the packaging is different and entertaining enough