Neeraj Vora brings us a second helping of comedic shenanigans in Phir Hera Pheri, as Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal and Sunil Shetty revisit the money-hungry goons of the original hit film. The art to appreciating the sequel lies in willingly surrendering yourself to three hours of total buffoonery. With a nonsensical script resplendent with snappy one-liners, simple slapstick humour and characters playing purely for laughs, you'll either love it or you'll hate it.
Having made their fortune, the fumbling schemers are out to make even more money. Raju (Akshay Kumar) stumbles upon a scheme to double his wealth and having conned a small-time drugs peddler into giving him 20 lakhs, he convinces Baburao (Paresh Rawal) and Shyam (Suniel Shetty) to part with their money and their house to make up the investment. Finding themselves victims of a scam, the hapless trio are left in debt, homeless and embroiled in a drug trafficking farce that leaves them at the mercy of drugs baron Tiwari. Comic capers abound as they try to win back their money and save their hides.
Featuring speech-challenged gangsters, un-PC gags, and damsels dancing to cheesy, upbeat ditties, Phir Hera Pheri goes all out to entertain. The cast seemingly revel in the inanity of their antics, and the lack of pretence makes it less cringeworthy than the usual comic fare to spring from Bollywood's funny bone. The three leads play off one another well, Paresh Rawal bagging all the laughs as the bumbling Baburao, while Akshay Kumar demonstrates his natural comic bent. The nonsensical plot is compensated for by perfectly executed dialogue and the film only really veers off the mark in the outlandish Keystone-Cops-inspired circus finale.
"GOES ALL OUT TO ENTERTAIN"
Great cinema it's not. This is purely about belly laughs, and it does seem to have audiences rolling in the isles.
In Hindi with English subtitles