Cast: Akshay Kumar, Suniel Shetty, Tusshar Kapoor, Johnny Lever, Arshad Warsi, Rajpal Yadav, Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Farida Jalal, Aftab Shivdasani, Jackie Shroff, Daler Mehendi, Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Tusshar Kapoor, Paresh Rawal

Director: Ahmed Khan

Language: Hindi

There are two ways to look at Ahmed Khan’s new film Welcome To The Jungle. It’s the third film in the Welcome franchise. We get glimpses of Anil Kapoor and Nana Patekar’s hysterical and historic characters that are etched in the vitality of pop culture. The second way is the endless possibilities the ensemble of 32 actors can offer. There are more surprises in store and in the story once you see this madness unfold on celluloid. We get memories of Mahabharata and Phir Hera Pheri and even Jolly LLB. But we could have had much more, right from Border to Mohra to Tropic Thunder. How about referencing a film you supposedly sought inspiration from? But the film is much better than what the trailer offered. And the credit for that goes to the sheer commitment of everyone involved to deliver no-holds-barred content.

Fake films are a thing of yore.
_Welcome To The Jungle_ is the fourth guest at a bar. Welcome, Tees Maar Khan, and Dhoondte Reh Jaooge have already arrived and ordered three bottles of beer. But Ahmed Khan’s film will have double whisky with soda. It will leave no stones unturned to be as intoxicated as possible. This is the kind of a guest who will bite more than he can chew and then create a scene in front of everybody. And make absolutely no bones about it. The one word that can be used to describe the third film in the franchise is unabashed. This is a comedy that pushes all the buttons and goes in all directions with a sense of recklessness and refuses to breathe even after going bonkers and berserk.

The one major problem with the film is that the first half and the second half feel like two completely different entities.
There are references of _Dhurandhar_ nobody reacts to, how most of the Bollywood celebrities call the paparazzi themselves and pretend to look surprised when they click them. The leading man gets the best scene of the film out of this puerile but potent practice. Kumar, in fact, drives the insouciance of the story through the bumpy ride. The second half is about how a bunch of cohorts turn cheerleaders and messiah for a village inhabited by eccentric and entertaining characters.

The intentional haminess feels a hoot until the gargantuan ensemble gets exhausted with incessantly long gags. The innocuousness of the narrative needed to be more jubilant than jaded. The madness of the metaness and the expected easter eggs illicit smiles due to the unapologetic silliness.
But _Welcome To The Jungle_ is not satisfied by just being a comedy. Ahmed Khan has other plans in store. He should have never taken out that rabbit out of his hat. All of a sudden, we feel the plot has been hijacked by the spirit of Baaghi and all that was needed was Tiger Shroff to join the gang and battle his own father Jackie Shroff, who’s the antagonist of the story. That could have been a cool meta moment as well. But no such surprises here.

Creating a cocktail of chaos and commentary isn’t a clever idea, especially if the shots are being called by Ahmed Khan. An ode to Bajrangi Bhaijaan feels more implausible than intentional. The melodramatic mayhem juxtaposed with the slapstick hilarity of the leading man could be acquired taste. But the audacity of writer Farhad Samji and his director is almost appalling. The script idea belongs to the ingenuous Neeraj Vora. The spiritedness of his inspiration is precisely why almost all the actors get their moment of glory.

Farida Jalal walks away with top honours and so does Akshay Kumar who can now play to the gallery in his sleep. Suniel Shetty and Arshad Warsi, and even the perpetually lost and limp Jacqueline Fernandez nonchalantly throw themselves into the rigmarole of copious preposterousness. But Welcome To The Jungle works more than it doesn’t due to its self-awareness. It’s a film that fully commits to its idiocy. It stops at nothing. It halts at nothing. We may not take back anything. But a smile amid the time of gloom also works if you can’t entirely guffaw.

Rating: 3 (out of 5 stars)

Welcome To The Jungle is now playing in cinemas