After a lull in Bollywood releases due to the World Cup, comes Thank You, an Anees Bazmee product starring Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Irfan Khan, Rimi Sen, Suniel Shetty and Celina Jaitley. Known for his comic capers, Aneez’s last film, No Problem wasn’t exactly something you would like to remember and the initial response to Thank You promos wasn’t that good either. Reviewing a comedy is always difficult as what seems funny to one may not be for another. We happened to catch the pre-show of the movie Thursday at the premiere. Whether the movie is worth watching… well read on and find out.
The basic plot is pretty simple. Sticking to his familiar territory this time, Bazmee’s Thank You is the story of three philandering husbands Bobby Deol (Raj), Irfan Khan (Vikram) and Suniel Shetty (Yogi) who are very good friends. Raj and Simran (Sonam Kapoor) are happily married until she finds out that Raj has been cheating on her. While Yogi’s wife Maya (Celina Jaithley) and Vikram’s wife Shivani (Rimi Sen) already suspect their straying husbands, for Simran it comes as a shocker. On Maya’s insistence she hires a private detective Kishen (Akshay Kumar) who is quite a pro at as Akshay put it “exposing what dirty doggies do”. From here on starts a cat-mouse race where Kishen tries to prove the infidelity of the three (especially Raj) and they in turn – under the guidance and advice of Vikram – try to get out of the mess.
Anees has already tried his hand at the concept of straying husbands earlier in No Entry and this topic has already been used to the hilt in many other Bolly flicks like Do Not Disturb, Life in a Metro, Biwi No 1, Masti. So does this movie have anything new to offer? Very frankly, no. Like the case is with most of our Bollywood movies these days, the first half of the movie is pretty good but tends to falter badly post interval. Aneez Bazmee while talking exclusively to BollySpice had said that what makes Thank You different from other movies on the same concept is that along with comedy it has drama as well. Which I think has acted as a bane for this movie. What starts off as a comedy slowly turns into a sad emotional story in the second half, which leaves you wondering about the u-turn.
As far as the performances go, Akshay Kumar does what he is good at, the nth time. And surprisingly doesn’t have the entire movie centered around him. Bobby really doesn’t have many comedy scenes to his credit and plays his part of the husband pretty well. The super talented Irrfan as the male chauvinist husband who keeps his wife under his control and gives advice to his friends on how to achieve the same is truly amazing to watch. Using his typical deadpan look – which works for him every time – his transformation as a confident strict husband in the first half to a meek confused one in the latter is worth a watch.
Surprisingly, the man who manages to bring out the maximum laughs is Suniel in the character of Yogi. Probably after a long time he has found a role which could do him justice. Female leads are a bit of a disappointment with Celina having practically nothing to do. She disappears in the second half without any explanation and resurfaces only at the climax. Sonam is a big disappointment indeed who looks lifeless and expressionless throughout the movie. We sure hope she gets her act together fast if she wishes to do some meaty roles. However, Rimi Sen is a delight to watch. In fact of the three, one can safely say that she has a lot to perform and she does it well.
Songs by Pritam are pretty decent with Razia, ‘Pyaar Do Pyaar Lo’ and ‘Full Volume’ among the popular ones. Cameos by Mukesh Tiwari and Rakhi Tandon seem unpolished while Akshay’s story with Vidya Balan just before climax seems out of place.
What starts as a funny watchable movie doesn’t exactly end that way and somewhere Aneez’s story is to blame for that. Whether to watch this movie or not is something we leave up to you. Let’s just say that this one is not a very bad movie but it isn’t a very good one either.
