Happy Patel Khatarnak Jasoos movie review: Atrocious is the middle name for the title of the film that alternates between bizarre and boring

Happy Patel Khatarnak Jasoos movie review: Atrocious is the middle name for the title of the film that alternates between bizarre and boring

The basic problem with Happy Patel which marks the directorial debut of stand-up maestro and comedian VIR Das and backed by Aamir Khan is that it never takes itself seriously. Hence, its positioning is enormously ambiguous.

The protagonist, played by Das himself, is not aware about his real identity and roots because he grew up in Britain and raised by two mafioso Dads who had a history of violence at Panjor, Goa with another gangster, Jimmy Mario (Aamir Khan, cameo). Happy, who apparently hasn’t been able to clear MI-7 Exams underlining seven failed attempts, lands up in an assignment of tracing a missing Brit girl Beatrice Fetterbaum who is alleged kidnapped by the local lady don and daughter of Mario Cutlet Mama (Mona Singh).

So, our Ham Sandwich specializing Happy is tasked to acquire the skills of an undercover spy – a training that extends its tribute to Bollywood dance numbers and buffoonery in equal measures. He lands in Goa, befriends a hotelier, Geet (Sharib Hashmi) and falls in love in another mole, Rupa (Mithila Palkar) only to be trapped by Mama.

In this wild land of misfits, very few jokes land and scenes go haywire. ‘Happy Patel’ feels like an unforgivably extensive and plodding standup comedy - Of the Vir Das, by the Vir Das and For the Vir Das. While his character purportedly struggles with Hindi, the plot struggles with its very meaning, making the viewer feel strangulated. Das teams up with co-writer Kavi Shastri to produce jokes which are nothing less than a cringey set of wordplays – crass, clumsy and replete with double-meanings. Chidiya becomes Chutiya and Dekha becomes Dicka, because Hinglish is a very funny language that Das harps on to create a world that feels silly and insufferable, despite a sincere ensemble who try to elevate the dead plot, sans their gibberish make-ups and caricature standing.

The news of Imran Khan making a comeback in ‘Happy Patel’ serves as a clickbait because the actor is limited to just one scene where the nostalgia of ‘Delhi Belly’ is evident. But the quirks of that film and ‘Go Goa Gone’ would resemble a classic before ‘Happy Patel’. I was routinely frustrated when a random Tom shows up in scenes where Tum is uttered - Das’s indulgence with such mondegreens are in excess and embarrassing. Brief appearances from Sumukhi Suresh (the biological mom of Patel) in the beginning and the OG Chef Sanjeev Kapoor with Michael Chang in the culinary war finale throw you in a “Yeh sab kya ho raha hai” zone