Anees Bazmee’s Welcome is one of the most underrated comedies of recent times. However, over the years, it has become one of the most watched films on TV. Mubarakan is a typical Bazmee film which starts with loud background music and solid bass. The hero walks in slow motion and dances to peppy tunes, but shows a docile attitude in front of the heroine. Arjun Kapoor takes a cue from Akshay Kumar in Welcome and jumps into this mad-caper wholeheartedly. It’s just that Anil Kapoor is a pro at it and steals all the limelight from him. Most of us don’t expect any sort of explanations from such a film, so it keeps moving from Chandigarh to London in a jiffy with songs thrown in occasionally. They’re anyway needed to hold attention in this 156-minute film. Anil Kapoor, however, tries his best to hold the family and the story together. As someone who unknowingly keeps creating chaos, he has been rightly given a good screen time. Bazmee takes time here as some of his characters go for long monologues. This slows down the pace and gives the audience a chance to realise the loopholes in the otherwise over-simplified story. Mubarakan is designed as a family film where comedy is generated through quarrelling relatives. This works initially but goes out of control later. But that doesn’t mean you won’t be entertained. You’ll be occasionally laughing, but probably won’t be leaving the theatre with a big smile on your face.
Mubarakan is generally puerile, occasionally fun, and always unabashedly over the top. It is just the sort of mix of song, dance, comic gags and unbridled lunacy that Bollywood's mass audience so loves. So, there is superhit written all over the film, but this puffy concoction simply isn't for those with a taste for more subtle and easy-flowing humour. Mubarakan tries too hard to tickle our funny bones and the effort shows. Its songs and comic gags are of the routine variety. It seeks to propel itself on the back of the seductive power of familiarity, manages to do a tolerable job pre-interval but, taken as a whole, Mubarakan is neatly and niftily packaged crap that never stops reeking of stupidity. If there is anything positive in this attempted laugh riot, it is its refusal to take itself seriously - an attribute that stands the film in good stead when it begins to stretch beyond the plausible and the passable. But to expect nuanced and mould-breaking social dynamics in a film like Mubarakan is to take it more seriously than its makers themselves do. And that isn't a great idea: watch Mubarakan only if you dig comedies that do not demand that you dig deep for logic and meaning.
You are most definitely not in original territory here nor is there anything terrible smart going on in Mubarakan. The premise of twins causing chaos has been infinitely supreme in movies like Ram Aur Shyam, Golmaal, Angoor, Seeta Aur Geeta, Chaalbaaz and even Judwaa. But Anees Bazmee who has made a career of dishing out gags and funny one-liners, goes at this one again with gusto. And you do find yourself amused at times. Giving away too much will spoil the fun that you’re meant to have watching this. So you just have to go through this garrulous, laugh-out-loud affair with the usual patience and perhaps even some perseverance that you usually reserve for Bollywood comedies such as this one. Anil is the scene-stealer with his half Brit-half Punjabi act lifting the film throughout. Arjun’s double-act allows for some smiles and the girls, Ileana, Athiya and Neha are easy on the eye, though they’re just decorative set-pieces. Ratna and Pavan add weightage with their stellar acts, though Pavan should have kept it down in the dramatic portions, where he is much too loud. The songs—Tu Goggle Paa Ke Nache and a remix of the Hawa Hawa number lift the spirits. If comedies are your thing, then mubarakan…