Garam Masala Hindi Movie
"You'll just have to put an end to this Raas Leela," a character finally expresses what the audience is itching for all through this longish visual limerick on leggy Lolitas limping in and out of Casanova Akshay Kumar's suspiciously large home and heart.
Playing the roving-eyed modern-day Krishna comes naturally to Akshay Kumar. One of the meagre pleasures of watching this mating-farce is to see how much Akshay has evolved as a comic actor. Not one false move, even as he falls repeatedly in love...and trips over his nose in a flurry of amorous activity.
Priyadarshan's comedies have always been very physical...Goofy oddballs tripping over chairs, tables and other furniture-sometimes of the human variety.
Happily, the actors on this hit-and-run occasion are all in fine shape...though we can't say that about the actresses, except in the most obvious physical sense.
The three newcomers Daisy, Neetu and Nargis are like red ice-candy melting under the lascivious male gaze.
Akshay Kumar with considerable assistance from satirical sophomore John Abraham and the seasoned virtuoso Paresh Rawail whips up a luscious lather of libidinous laughter.
The in-through-the-ouch-door variety of situational comedy isn't easy to uphold. The plot's comic chemistry hinges with heaving hilarity on the principal actors' swirling nervous tension as two or more of Akshay's girlfriends land up together.
John and Paresh are the bewildered and exasperated bystanders, revving up the proceedings with a whirr of wicked one-liners.
John makes a very brave and largely honest attempt to play the bumbling but conniving pal with a heart of coal. He comes up with cool candour in some sequences.
It's interesting to watch the all boys' club consisting of the Casanova, the companion and the cook make use of the living-room space to conjure up the dead-on drollery of a bedroom farce.
Yes, it does get progressively tedious to watch as the three-timing hero's amoral antics get rapidly frenzied. To his credit Akshay Kumar with some help from his two male co-stars, keeps the proceedings perked up.
When it comes to a two-timing hero, timing is all. Akshay seems to have realized it. The revved-up hero, his comically contained co-stars, the dialogue writer Neeraj Vora and the director make sure that this raas leela doesn't lapse into a crass leela.
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