MOVIE REVIEW – HAPPY BHAG JAYEGI (2016)

Today we are here with a review of HAPPY BHAG JAYEGI (2016) - a comic genre movie released this Friday, written and directed by Mudassar Aziz with Diana Penty, Abhay Deol, Ali Fazal, Jimmy Shergill in lead roles. As the name suggests movie is based on an Amritsari girl ‘Happy’ (Diana Penty) who ran away from his wedding as she loves his college mate ‘Guddu’ (Ali Fazal).

The movie opens with a marriage function in Amritsar where Bride - Happy (Diana Penty), who is getting married to a local Corporator Daman Singh Bagga (Jimmy Shergill), escapes from her wedding for getting married to her lover Guddu (Ali Fazal). Accidently, she jumps into a wrong truck which goes to Lahore, Pakistan alongwith convoy of Pakistani Ex-Governor, Javed Ahmed and his son Bilal Ahmed (Abhay Deol), who were returning to Pakistan after attending a Conference in India.

After accidentally reaching Lahore, the energetic and vibrant Happy takes the whole town on her head while an agitated Bagga kidnaps Guddu with an assurance that Happy will come to him. Will Happy and Guddu’s love story have a happy ending? Is Bilal too in the race to win Happy’s heart is all you have to find out by watching the movie!

The film even with a predictable plot, manages to keep you on the seat with its funny dialogues. The comedy in the movie is far better than Housefull series and other Romantic Comedies of Bollywood. There are instances when one is reminded of Kangana Ranaut starrer Tanu weds Manu, Kareena Kapoor starrer Jab we Met, Praneeti Chopra starrer Shudh Desi Romance and Sonam Kapoor’s sneakers-preferring bride in Dolly ki Doli.

The film’s story is set in both India and Pakistan and the good point represented in the movie is that life beyond the border is quite similar to us. Taking on the country’s nature through subtle jokes, dialogues such as ‘Yahan bandook ke bina baat karo toh koi sunta hi nahi hai’ work well. The urdu conversations between Bilal and Afridi are amazing and funny too.

Happy’s character is told us more crazy than actually seeing it in the film. Mostly, it is the side characters that are written best. First half is good but the second half typically gets all the lead characters in one place and thus begins the chaos with multiple sub-plots that kills all the fun as in the most of the bollywood comedies.

What’s Good:

This film’s soul lies in its dialogues and the comic timings. For example when drunk Guddu and Pakistani policeman, Afridi (Piyush Mishra) discussing Urdu and not Kashmir, Bilal convincing his father about seeing his late mother’s ghost to cover-up for Happy’s movements in the house.

Abhay Deol as Bilal Ahmed has played the role which binds the movie altogether. Jimmy Shergil as  Bagga is also good with his comic dialogues such as

The Indo-Pak angle works in favour of the movie and one of interesting scene showing the relations between the two countries is when we see Bilal enjoying a game of Cricket in the by-lanes of Amritsar and after hitting two sixes, he causally mentions being from Pakistan and the kid bowling, immediately gets him bold saying “Pehle bataya hota Pakistan se ho.”

On the whole, clever writing holds this film together.

Loop holes in the movie:

With too many sub-plots, the film’s second half seems stretched.

Moreover, being the lead character ‘Happy’ (Diana Penty) doesn’t justifies his character. Diana must have put her best to play the character of ‘Happy’ most importantly in the era when most of the bollywood movies are male centric and female actresses has seldom roles to play other than to glamorize the movies.

Guddu was shown the musician in the movie but we are never shown him singing or performing throughout.

Star Peformance:-

Diana Penty has put efforts for playing the role of Punjabi girl but she does not come off as convincing.

Abhay Deol looks charming as Bilal Ahmed and holds the movie altogether. Ali Fazal plays the lover boy Guddu and does a decent job.

Jimmy Shergill once again does not get the girl in the film like in the Tanu Weds Manu franchisee movie. His act of Bagga, is quite enjoyable.

Piyush Mishra as the Pakistani cop does a great job and his comic timing is spot on.

Pakistani TV actress Momal Sheikh is seen as Bilal’s fiancee in the film and she does an average job and fails to impact his presence.

Final words:

Happy Bhag Jayegi is watchable. The film’s comic elements and acts keep you entertained and this could be a ‘Happy’ family movie.

My ratings for this movie is 3 out of 5 stars.

So keep following the page, good day till the next review

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