Rating: 2/5
Banners: UTV Motion Pictures, Hari Om Productions
Music: Pritam Chakraborty
Cinematography: Ravi Yadav
Director: Anees Bazmee
Producers: Ronnie Screwvala, Twinkle Khanna
Release Date: 08/04/2011
Completely clichéd? Surely. No script surprises? Absolutely none. At this point, it is redundant to even call Anees Bazmee’s films formulaic. The master script doctor, who delivered with directorial hits like ‘No Entry’ and ‘Welcome’, seems to be so fresh out of ideas that his all of his recent creations seem ultra stale. Sample his latest, ‘Thank You’. While the theme of three errant husbands being taught a lesson in loyalty by their faithful wives and a cocky detective seems like it has been done to death in films like Indra Kumar’s ‘Masti’, David Dhawan’s ‘Shaadi No.1′ and Bazmee’s own ‘No Entry’, Anees here seems to believe that he can still wring out some life from the old plot.
The players in the farce, set in Toronto this time around, are Irrfan Khan as Vikram, married to Rimi Sen as Karthika, Bobby Deol’s Raj, married to Sonam Kapoor’s Sanjana and Suniel Shetty’s Yogi, married to a shrewish Radha, played by Celina Jaitley. Akshay Kumar, who is also on board as a producer through wife Twinkle, plays the lordly Kishen, a private detective hired by the wives to out their husbands, even as he seems to be intent on wooing Sanjana for himself. Also in the fray is a local ‘bhai’ called King, played by Mukesh Tiwari, who has fidelity problems of his own, with a wife played by Rakhi Vijan.
While the situation itself might gather a few giggles from frontbenchers, what compounds matters for the film is a complete lack of any real humour in Bazmee’s script. Through its near 150 minutes, ‘Thank You’ fails to induce even a smile from the audience at large. While the dialogues are drab, the situational comedy is wholly unentertaining. One could be forgiven for thinking that the chuckle a minute Anees Bazmee who wrote ‘Welcome’ and the one who wrote ‘Thank You’ are two different persons, in fact. While the writer director tries to set the film apart by adding a couple of plot twists along the way, even giving Kishen a shorthand backstory in the climax, there is nothing in it that can appeal to a cinegoer’s interests, as Bazmee seems more focused on skin show from random non Indian women and showing us the sights and sounds around Toronto.
mee seems more focused on skin show from random non Indian women and showing us the sights and sounds around Toronto.
On the acting side, none of the actors display anything worth writing about. Akshay Kumar, who hasn’t had a real hit since last year’s ‘Housefull’ is in for some more battering from his fans here, as he rehashes his old, giggling, yawn inducing routine again, and just provides more material for mimicry artistes. While Sonam Kapoor plays it like she’s angling to get back into acting school, the others, Rimi and Celina seem to have nothing to do here. While the sidelined Shetty seems to be getting typecast as a multistarrer’s comic relief, Bobby Deol needs to develop some more funny chops soon if he is to prolong his career outside his own banner. Irrfan Khan is a tragedy unto himself here, as the otherwise talented actor is completely wasted trying to play the almost misogynous Vikram.
Maybe it was a problem at the multiplex one was watching the film at, but the film’s sound mix during its musical numbers seems rather badly done, with all songs sounding rather muted, wasting the now standard surround sound technology in modern cinema halls. This is rather unfortunate, as it dampens even the one strength of the film, Pritam’s music. Tracks like ‘Razia gundo mein phas gayi’ and ‘pyar do, pyar lo’ sound stifled, even as Anees introduces them at the most random points in the narrative. Mallika Sherawat’s item turn in ‘Razia’ also turns to be a damp squib as the aspiring international star simply doesn’t seem to have the moves to match the likes of ‘Sheila’ and ‘Munni’.
Conclusion :
With a stale plot, boring dialogues and bad acting, ‘Thank You‘ is a lost cause. Maybe Anees Bazmee is already aware of the reception that audiences will give the film, thus choosing to release it over the same weekend that the next edition of IPL is set to kick off in. In the cricket tournament, the director has a ready excuse to blame its failure on. And he is probably counting on audiences to forget this debacle with the release of his next, ‘Ready’, which stars box office heavyweight Salman Khan. Until that one arrives, audiences certainly have no reason to say ‘thank you’ here.
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