Kapil Sharma finally makes his Bollywood debut with Kis Kisko Pyaar Karu. The man is spoilt for choice, as he is surrounded by four pretty women. We, on the other hand, don’t have much to look forward to.
It’s a rather straight forward decision – either we accept that we are stupid and merrily lap-up the misogyny that is being offered in the garb of comedy, or pride ourselves on our grey matter and refuse to waste 136 precious minutes on something as banal as this!
If you thought Kapil had exhausted his quota of regressive jokes about women, you are in for a rude shock. Under the tutelage of director duo Abbas-Mustan, things can only go from bad to worse. Kapil plays Bholu, a character who falls in love with three women (Manjari Phadnis, Sai Lokur and Simran Kaur Mundi), in addition to having Elli Avram as his girlfriend.
While he comes up with inane excuses to save himself from getting caught, we are supposed to laugh at the abject incredulity of the situation and the dim witted responses of the women in his life. Not just this – somewhere in the middle of all this chaos we are also expected to sympathise with Bholu and admire him for trying to keep all the women happy.
The narrative tone unapologetically sides with the hero, while the women, despite being cheated upon and lied to, remain the laughingstock!
Kis Kisko Pyaar Karu is a lacklustre attempt at comedy, and Kapil’s performance offers nothing new. Why then did I not abandon the film half way in between? That’s because of the brilliant comic timing of Varun Sharma (of Fukrey fame) and Johnny Lever’s daughter Jamie who plays the confused maid.
Every time they appeared on screen, the film seemed a little less painful. Apart from the mall scene and Arbaaz Khan’s deaf gangster act, there is little to hold our attention.
The film quite clearly prides itself on humour by men, of men and for men while merrily making fun of women. If this is the type of comedy you can stomach, then by all means go for it. I shall give it 2 QUINTS out of 5.
The only way Bollywood can redeem itself is by making a similar film, with an equally unapologetic heroine at the helm of affairs who boasts of four husbands and is praised for the choices she makes. Till such time, there is little respite from the dark clouds of such misogynistic humour. Truly tragic!
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