Masti (2004)
Cast: Ajay Devgun, Lara Dutta, Vivek Oberoi, Aftab, Amrita Rao, Tara Sharma
Director:-Indra Kumar
Music Director: Anand Raaj Anand
Synopsis: Cheap Bollywood take on the American Pie genre - avoid!
Reviewed by: Faiz Khan

 

American Pie is hardly the sort of genre Bollywood should be aspiring to, or even pretending to aspire to, but it certainly seems to have found an admirer in Indra Kumar, who conjures up a rather crass sex comedy loaded with innuendo, double entendres and cheap jokes. Fortunately, it also has the occasional genuinely funny moment. Kumar makes no secret of the fact that he has set out to make an unabashed commercial entertainer aimed primarily at the front-bench audience. With a reasonably good cast at his disposal, however, one does expect that the film might have something a little more substantial to offer.

The film opens with Amar (Ritesh Deshmukh) getting married, much to the horror of his two closest friends, Meet (Vivek Oberoi) and Prem (Aftab Shivdasani), who promptly ridicule him for entering into what they gleefully describe as "umar qaid". Cut to three years later, and the three friends reunite, only to discover that each is trapped in an unhappy marriage and living the life of a thoroughly henpecked husband.

Amar's wife keeps him firmly on a leash. Meet has married into wealth but finds himself burdened with an obsessively possessive wife who has transformed him into the very image of a respectable baniya lest another woman should so much as glance in his direction. Prem, meanwhile, has married the archetypal sati savitri whose endless fasts and religious observances ensure that married life remains painfully uneventful. Thoroughly frustrated, the three conclude that it is high time they indulged in a little masti. They agree to go their separate ways in search of adventure before meeting again one month later to exchange stories of their supposed romantic conquests.

When they finally reconvene, they are horrified to discover that each has been romantically involved with the very same woman—Monica (Lara Dutta)—who now proceeds to blackmail all three of them. Forced to come up with the money, they find themselves in even deeper trouble when Monica is suddenly murdered. Enter Inspector Sikander (Ajay Devgn), who appears convinced that the three hapless philanderers are responsible for the crime.

Masti actually possesses a fairly decent premise, bearing more than a passing resemblance to some of the sanitised Hollywood comedies of the 1960s, particularly Jack Lemmon's How to Murder Your Wife, albeit stripped of that film's innocence, sophistication and effortless charm. What remains is often crude but, by and large, fairly harmless. There is very little genuine wit or intelligence in the screenplay, yet the first half rattles along at a respectable pace and manages to generate a reasonable number of laughs.

Unfortunately, the second half loses its way rather badly. Once our three heroes suddenly rediscover the virtues of their long-suffering wives, Indra Kumar labours the point endlessly and even subjects us to an unnecessary sentimental song in the process. The pace slackens considerably and what had been an agreeably silly romp begins to outstay its welcome. Kumar succeeds in generating the occasional burst of demented humour, but far too much of it depends upon broad slapstick and embarrassingly juvenile jokes that often provoke more cringes than laughs.

Ajay Devgn has only a limited role, but it provides a welcome change of pace after the succession of intense performances that have characterised much of his recent work. Lara Dutta enjoys her brief but pivotal role and handles it with confidence. Vivek Oberoi appears somewhat uncomfortable throughout and is comfortably overshadowed by Aftab Shivdasani, whose comic timing proves surprisingly assured, and by Ritesh Deshmukh, who cheerfully makes a complete fool of himself and, to his credit, does so rather well.

Amongst the female cast, Amrita Rao makes the strongest impression as the absurdly possessive wife. Tara Sharma is an unmitigated disaster, while Genelia D'Souza barely registers at all. The music is ordinary and almost entirely forgettable.

On the whole, Masti is little more than a harmless diversion for those with nothing better to do. In the hands of a more polished director, this might well have emerged as a genuinely funny comedy of errors. As it stands, it remains little more than a front-bencher's delight.