No Country
For Young Men
Film: Welcome To Karachi
Cast: Arshad Warsi, Jackky Bhagnani, Lauren Gottlieb
Directed by: Ashish R Mohan
Duration: 2 hrs 10 mins
Rating: * * 1 /
2
The story of a dumb and dumber
Indian mistakenly landing on the shores of Pakistan is the not the story of
your average Bollywood film, the jokes in it though cater to the lowest common
denominator. The director Ashish R Mohan, was Rohit Shetty’s assistant, hence
that should come as no surprise. To be fair to the film makers, it hits bulls
eye as far as the target audience is concerned. It doesn’t aim to be
politically correct, in fact far from it, there are caricatures and all
possible stereotypes that you can imagine involving an Indo-Pak affair. It must
also be added that by default, political correctness has never been the strong
points of most films anyway.
After a boat cruise goes awry,
Shammi (Arshad Warsi) an ex Navy man and Kedar (Jackky Bhagnani)who
intelligence quotient is slightly on the lower side, find themselves on the shores of Karachi. They
are mistaken as Indian spies and a Pakistani intelligence agent (Lauren
Gottlieb) is hot on their heels. Every
person they come across there is wielding a gun and has links to terrorists or
gangsters.
From the Taliban to a jihadi
campin Waziristan, not to mention American agents, they keep jumping from one
place to the other. There is the
occasional humor but it tries up as the film progresses. As a rule, comedy
films should be crisp and to the point but alas, more often than not, they
carry unnecessary baggage and this film also a climax that is a yawn.
Amidst all the zaniness, there
are a few scenes that stand out. The embassy shootout for instance was a clever
of showing how trigger happy nations are in today’s world or the scene where
they discover that the barb wire along the border is stolen and Shammi remarks
“Dono taraf hi chor hain” (there are thieves on both sides)
In many ways, Welcome To Karachi
is also a missed opportunity because the plot had the potential to be more than
what it is, as a comedy and satire.
However odd it may sound, Arshad
Warsi and Jackky Bhagnani share a good chemistry, the latter’s outing is much
better than what he has done previously, but that is not saying much.
Welcome to Karachi is okay for a
few silly laughs with silly being the operative word.
Published in The Navhind Times on 31st May 2015
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