From the trailer it looked like yet another mediocre comedy from a director whose last offering was the poor WELCOME BACK. The first impression was of an over-ambitious project with loud Punjabi characterizations given to almost everyone on screen. And there were least expectations from the project and its entire cast ensemble to be very honest.
However as a pleasant surprise, MUBARAKAN turns out to be a film exactly opposite of all the assumptions made before the decisive Friday. Moreover it unexpectedly happens to be a clean family comedy coming from the director who was only dealing with crime, guns, gangsters, the other woman, s*x and all mature content in his majority of films till date.
In other words, this is a new Anees Bazmee here dealing with all Punjabi characters in a complex yet thoroughly enjoyable script that can easily be called ‘A Punjabi film made in Hindi’ giving Punjab, its people and the language their much deserving due (forgotten or ignored by almost all the write-ups).
Based on an entertaining and praise worthy writing of Balwinder Singh Janjua, Rupinder Chahal, Gurmeet Singh and Rajesh Chawla, MUBARAKAN begins calmly and then simply wins over the viewer with its engaging story progression having regular twists and turns served with hilarious one-liners bringing the house down right till the moving climax. Particularly it’s the subtle undercurrent of emotions in the film that results in an enjoyable family comedy that is sure going to give a real good time to its majority of audience.
Its first half is a complete winner with every single actor contributing his or her bit in the narration providing ‘the much awaited’ wholesome entertainment. The second half has some issues, but it soon picks up too after an initial drop in the pace post the intermission. In all MUBARAKAN is a sheer delight to watch and it’s a perfect example where writing, direction and performances are completely in-sync with each other resulting in a delightful product.
Among the shortcomings, it yet again deals with a repetitive or unoriginal territory of twins becoming the base of all confusions or chaos. The premise has been the feature of many big hits in the past exploiting the same ‘mistaken identities’ formula and MUBARAKAN is just another addition in the list with the major difference of having all Punjabi characters, with many duly wearing a turban and maintaining its dignity too.
The other drawback in the film comes when suddenly one of the key characters decides to change his love interest and then finds the same being done from the other side too in a quite silly and absurd manner. However the director and his writers very cleverly cover-up this puzzling change of partners and don’t let you feel any awkwardness making you laugh at the same. So actually it’s the writing that truly rescues MUBARAKAN at many places and doesn’t let it sink even when it all becomes quite stretched towards the end getting into too many explanations.
Having an appealing cinematography, glossy production values and an apt background score definitely helps the film, but the music could have been better missing any extremely popular front runner track. Still, the songs sound fine while watching the film, including probably the 7th adaptation of Hassan Jahangir’s 'Hawa Hawa' (from Pakistan) in Hindi films as ‘Boyfriend Bana Ley”. Interestingly even Hassan had taken the key inspiration of the song from an original Iranian track.
Coming to the highly appreciable performances, we have Arjun Kapoor doing well in his second double role of a so young career. He looks naughty as well as confident playing both Karan and Charan having extreme contrasting personalities. And their scenes together force you to praise the VFX team behind the screen making them look flawlessly real. Among the girls, Ileana D’Cruz scores the most looking great, Neha Sharma plays it well but Athiya Shetty doesn’t get much to do in her few scenes. Ratna Pathak Shah continues owning the scenes post last week’s LIPSTICK UNDER MY BURKHA and Rahul Dev is surprisingly cool in his impressive father’s act.
Karan Kundra, Sanjay Kapoor, Gurpal Singh and the entire supporting cast does a fine job but MUBARAKAN unarguably belongs to both Anil Kapoor and Pavan Malhotra playing the lead roles. Where Anil Kapoor remains the lovable soul of the film, Pavan lifts it up beautifully with his heartfelt emotional act supporting the entertaining Anil. And together they just brighten up the screen bringing big smiles onto your faces through their adorable acts.
Here would like to mention two particular scenes where I felt the film excelling the most.
One, when Pavan looks back at Anil, after he switches on the lights decorating the house. And two, when we see an angel walking in the balcony while Anil is talking with his dead brother giving him a reality check (that was indeed hilarious!).
On the whole, MUBARAKAN much more than just a fine Punjabi entertainer that is sure to bring back the family audience in the theaters just like the recent HINDI MEDIUM. As a matter of fact, one can also describe it as an enjoyable Rajshri film made in the typical Anees Bazmee style.
(The article also got featured in UC-News mobile app in July 2017)
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Shared below are views - Beyond the initial review with more interesting insights.
Despite all the negativity caused by its uninteresting and loud promos, MUBARAKAN surprisingly turns out to be a great enjoyable comedy without having anything related to violence, gangsters, the third woman, sex or vulgarity. In other words, here we have a different Anees Bazmee coming up with a complex yet thoroughly entertaining clean comedy that can be watched by the entire family together having a great time.
That said, the non-punjabi viewers might not understand many dialogues and lyrics too in a couple of songs. Moreover despite being well-written in many hilarious sequences, I did find one objectionable dialogue in the film wherein Anil praises the Punjabi learned by his foreigner associate saying,
“He has learned well but will become a real Punjabi only when he will be able to converse fluently using the most common swear words.”
This one dialogue happens to be an eye-opener for both the community that seriously needs to work upon its damaged image and the writers too, who displayed a completely wrong and less-informed mindset while conceiving their Sikh characters for the screen.
Anyway ignoring this particular line and a few more absurdities in its second half (as mentioned in the detailed review in the link shared above) MUBARAKAN deserves to be seen and can easily be quoted as ‘A Punjabi film made in Hindi’ that is sure to bring back the family audience in the theaters post the recent HINDI MEDIUM.
Rating : 3 / 5
