Camera: Shiv Kumar Maurya
Video Editor: Rahul Sanpui
Producer: Abhishek Ranjan
Thanks to Geet’s character from Jab We Met, Bollywood has regurgitated this ‘bubbly heroine’ formula a number of times – sadly, never managing to reach its original level of brilliance.
Happy Bhag Jayegi that released in 2016 had Diana Penty playing the eponymous character who is also named Happy just in case she forgets to channelise her inner happiness! Runaway bride Happy crossed the border to Pakistan and spends her time frolicking with three eligible candidates – Daman Singh Bagga, the local muscleman (Jimmy Shergill); Guddu (Ali Fazal), the good for nothing musician; and the suave Pakistani businessman’s son Bilal Ahmed (Abhay Deol).
It was a typically average film with some crowd-pleasing jokes, and a bit of fun.
Now, the latest installment called Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi forces writer-director Mudassar Aziz to come up with an overwrought premise to justify the presence of another Happy (it’s Sonakshi Sinha this time) who lands up in padosi desh China. What follows? Chaos, confusion, some racism, a little bit of homophobia and inanities like constantly saying names like “Maka Ju” and “Fa Qu”.
We are supposed to get a kick seeing a Chinese kidnapper speak in chaste Hindi and our desis repeatedly saying how “every Chinese looks the same.” Dear China, consider this our badla for meddling in Arunachal Pradesh!
It isn’t as though this is unwatchable. The first half is a lark with our usual suspects capering around each other. Jimmy Shergill repeats his “main ghodi chadd gaya tha” a little too many times, but it’s still funny. And while Piyush Mishra’s typical dialogue delivery has turned into memes, his “Urdu talaffuzz” can still garner laughs.
Joining the motley crew is Punjabi singer Jassi Gill who makes his Bollywood debut here. He is a sardarji who works at the Embassy in Shanghai, and helps one Happy escape the not-so-happy fate of the other. There is an easy charm about him.
Diana Penty and Ali Fazal basically feature in what can be described as an extended cameo. Sonakshi Sinha delivers an exuberant performance, her swashbuckling Amritsar ki Sikhni avatar mostly on point.
But by the second half, all this breezy and snappy humour gets a stale treatment. There is drama and melodrama as “bauji ki izzat” and broken relationships come into the fray, and the laughs are few and far between.
The film makes an attempt at a plot but the machinations constantly appear to be obvious and clichéd. Although some jokes do land – mostly because of the great chemistry that the ensemble cast shares – how long does one keep busy trying to find humour in goons slipping on noodles and making fun of how the Chinese look?
Happy Phirr bhag jaayegi is just about okay and it all boils down to how forgiving you are and how easily you giggle.
2.5 QUINTS out of 5
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