"There is a flood in the affairs of men, which when taken at the tide leads to great fortune": William Shakespeare "Samundar mein har kisi ke naam ki ek lehar aati hai... Pakad liya toh naseeb varna sab vada pav": Chutta, the drug king Tera Kya Hoga Johnny is a thrilling drama written and directed by Sudhir Mishra where emotions like greed, lust, love, betrayal and hope acquire a new meaning in a Mumbai that desperately wants to be Shanghai.
It's the story of Parvez (Neil Nitin Mukesh) who wants to be a part of the 'India Shining' dream. His life is torn between his desperation to run away with the love of his life Divya (Shahana Goswami) who is married to a corrupt encounter cop Chiple (Kay Kay Menon) and his commitment to his family.
Parvez needs to get rich and real quick. The problem is that he has no clue how!
When Parvez decides to steal Chiple's ill-gotten money stashed in a flat, it sets into motion a thrilling ride of emotions that engulfs not just his life but also of a coffee delivery boy (Sikandar Agarwal).
No other filmmaker in India has explored the psyche' of people caught in extreme circumstances with the dominating consistency of Sudhir Mishra. His films have brought to screen characters and relationships that echo the changing social realities of our times. And Tera Kya Hoga Johnny is no exception.
The film is also the story of Priti (Soha Ali Khan) and Vishal (Karan Nath).She is a small time model fighting the good fight and he, the typical cocaine snorting big dream loser on the invariable and inexorable spiral into crime. Intertwined in the lives of these characters are Chutta (Vijay Maurya), a drug dealer who wants to corporatize the trade, his eunuch sugar momma Begum (Saurabh Shukla) and a mysterious billionaire who gets drawn into their lives.
They are all playing a game called Life. They are all waiting to ride on that one wave.
To start with, 3 THAY BHAI undoubtedly remains one of those few substandard films which should not have been made in the first place. In fact the only question I had in mind while watching it was that "How could a big production house of a reputed director back this kind of spineless project?" Produced by the well known, Rakesh Omprakash Mehra (who I still can't believe directed RANG DE BASANTI), I wonder what inspired him to approve this kind of inferior film?
The story deals with Thakur Maharaj Singh who is rich, kind, and ambitious and the owner of several derbies - winnning stallions. He lives with his wife Rukmini and his young son Chimpoo in a palatial house. Man Singh and his gang of poachers once raid Thakur\'s farm to steal some of his prize horses, but Man Singh\'s young son gets killed by the unerring bullet from Thakur\'s gun. Maan Singh swears to avenge the death of his son, and abducts Chimpoo. After several years Ram Singh who is a servant of Maharaj Singh brings Badal into the Thakur\'s house and tells them that he is their missing son Chimpoo. Then Badal is in love with Sunita who is the daughter of Thankur. Soon Badal confesses to Maharaj Singh that he is not Chimpoo, he gets anger with him but he doesn\'t tell the truth to Rukmini. The end of the story tells will Thankur finds real Chimpoo and Will Badal and Sunita be able to convey their love relationship to Thakur and Rukmini?
Anees Bazmee seems to be re-visiting familiar terrain with his new film. Thank You is heavily inspired by his earlier comic caper, No Entry, where Salman Khan had the onerous task of curing a motley group of errant husbands from their chronic infidelity. This time, it is Akshay Kumar who wields the baton -- or is it the flute -- to underscore the sanctity of the institution of marriage. Is this a case of playing safe for the director who has recently burned his hands at the box office or is it a drought of story ideas that seems to be Bollywood's biggest scourge?
Repetition notwithstanding, Thank You ends up as timepass fare, although it isn't as rollicking as No Entry. The first half of the film seems to be an exercise in nothingness and has you fidgeting in your seat as you try to look for the rare laughs in a script that is supposed to be funny. The bit-on-the-side sequences of the three husbands are hardly hilarious nor does the fuming wives club set the screen ablaze with hysteria. It is only in the second half that the film acquires form and substance and has you grinning at certain goof-ups. Akshay Kumar's elaborate plans to set the three marriages straight provides scope for actors like Irrfan Khan and Suneil Shetty to kick up a bit of fun, although Bobby Deol has hardly any humour tailored into his role. By and large, he remains dour and angry as he begins to suspect his sweet wife Sonam of adultery. The girls, on their part, mostly remain cosmetic with Sonam looking terribly out of sync, Rimmi not being allowed to play her feisty self and Celina being forced to do the disappearing act for a large part of the film.
So what's funny about Thank You? It's the guys who reiterate the worn-out cliche that fidelity isn't an intrinsic part of male physiology. Add to this the high production values -- glitzy locales, jazzy styling -- and Pritam's pop numbers and you have a film that can be an average weekend getaway. Nothing more, not even Mallika Sherawat's item number.