An insipid comedy.

Grade: C

All The Best

Indian Release Date: 16/10/09
CBFC Classification:  U/A
Running Length: 2 Hours 23 Minutes

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Sanjay Dutt, Fardeen Khan, Bipasha Basu, Mughda Godse, Asrani, Mukesh Tiwari, Johnny Lever, Ashwini Kalsekar, Sanjay Mishra
Director: Rohit Shetty
Screenplay: Robin Bhatt & Yunus Sejawal
Cinematography: Dudley
Music: Pritam Chakraborty

Rohit Shetty has often cited Hrishikesh Mukherjee as a major source of inspiration for his own films. In All The Best he even has two sequences which show Ajay Devgn & Fardeen Khan watching scenes from two classic Hrishikesh Mukherjee films, Chupke Chupke & Golmaal. However in spite of the classic humor on display on screen, nay a smile is present on either actor’s face, both seem non-pulsed & utterly bored. This jaded look is not far off from describing my own reaction while watching All The Best.

Veer (Fardeen Khan) has been enjoying a comfortable life in Goa on the monthly pocket money provided to him by his elder brother Dharam (Sanjay Dutt) who’s a big businessman & doesn’t live in India. Veer has lied to Dharam that he’s married to Vidya (Mughda Godse), who’s actually his girlfriend so that he can collect a higher amount of pocket money. Prem (Ajay Devgn) & Jhanvi (Bipasha Basu) on the other hand are married & they are good friends of Veer & Vidya. In trying to make an extra buck, they take part in a car race & run up a huge debt with a local don Tobu (Johnny Lever) & have a short period to pay him back. In order to quickly generate some income they decide to lease out Veer’s bungalow to Raghu (Sanjay Mishra), a slum dweller who’s won a huge lottery recently. Just when things can’t get any worse Dharam turns up unannounced & in the ensuing confusion mistakes Jhanvi to be Vidya. Unavoidable circumstances fueled by need for drastic measures lead to more mistaken identities & more mayhem ensues.

All The Best could have been easily called Golmaal 3. Rohit Shetty has made a staple formula for all his comedies. They have nearly all the same actors & supporting actors, most of the comedy comes from the men acting like buffoons backed up by weird background noises; the leading ladies just look pretty & shake a leg in the songs, the sets & the costumes are so bright & colorful that they look fake right from the word go, enough sexual innuendos are slyly filled into the dialogues, etc. His idea of pacing the jokes is simple, try and put a joke in every sentence unless there is a song or a fight going on. With a thousand arrows at least a few are bound to hit the target & that’s exactly what happens. The cringe-worthy dialogues don’t help either.  

Most of the first half is sluggish & the jokes fall flat, it’s only after Sanjay Dutt arrives that things liven up a bit. His interactions with Ajay Devgn work well in parts & comprise of some of the best jokes in the film. Things get tied down again towards the end when an unnecessary emotional plot-device is brought into the tale, only to end in a dull, preposterous & politically incorrect climax.

The cast mostly do an adequate job, but the written material with which they have to work is so inferior that even their efforts can barely salvage this movie. All the three leads, Sanjay Dutt, Ajay Devgn & Fardeen Khan are passable as their “playing-the-fool” routine goes. Bipasha Basu has nothing much to do & Mughda Godse is nearly non-existent. The other Rohit Shetty regulars are present in the same kind of over-the-top roles they always portray. Sanjay Mishra’s character of Raghu isn’t too different from his earlier roles but he comes off as more irritating than funny in this one, especially with the “Just Chill” line. Ashwini Kalsekar overacts to the hilt but sounds funny with a thick Malayalam accent & has the pretty funny ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ joke. Asrani…well is Asrani, yelling his lungs out while he flays around his hands mid air. Johnny Lever is a major disappointment with his all his hamming by using a glass and spoon as a means to communicate, obviously inspired from villainous Prem Nath in Karz (1980).

All The Best works in some gags but falls flat in most, those who don’t demand much from their comedies will maybe enjoy the movie, for the rest I recommend you go and pick up an old Hrishikesh Mukherjee classic instead.

Final Verdict: A below-par effort with a few good jokes & a lot of bad ones.

Grade: C         

 

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