GRAND MASTI REVIEW

GRAND MASTI

Maruti International’s Grand Masti (A), a sequel of Masti, is another film in which three happily-married men stray in their quest for fun and adult adventure. Dr. Amar Saxena (Ritesh Deshmukh), Meet Mehta (Vivek Oberoi) and Prem Chawla (Aftab Shivdasani) are friends who had sex on their minds in their college days. Robert Pereira (Pradeep Rawat) had taken over as their college principal just days before they were to pass out of college. They had had a glimpse of his no-nonsense nature when he had passed a diktat that strict action would be taken against boys and girls who would do any hanky-panky. And his strict action could even mean castrating the boys concerned. In fact, Hardik (Suresh Menon) had been castrated by Robert Pereira and then sent to a mental asylum.

Six years later, there is a college reunion where all ex-students are invited to spend a week in the college with their spouses. As luck would have it, Dr. Amar Saxena’s wife, Mamta (Sonalee), can’t accompany him as she is busy with their new-born child; Meet’s wife, Unnatti (Karishma Tanna), also excuses herself as she has to accompany her boss (Captain Bikramjeet Singh) to Turkey; and Prem’s wife refuses to go with him as she has to look after the elders in his family.

The three friends decide to go for the college reunion without their wives and plan to make the most of it by having extra-marital affairs. Luckily for them, Robert Pereira is out of the country for two days although he has left his trained crow to guard against any sexual activity or even sexual talk on the college premises. Dr. Amar Saxena meets Mary (Bruna Abdalah), a sexy girl, who is more than willing to sleep with him. Meet meets Marlowe (Kainaat Arora) whom he had shunned during his college days because of her lack of sex appeal. Marlowe has now metamorphosed into a buxom beauty and so Meet is more than willing to have fun with her and reciprocates her advances. Prem hooks up with his teacher, Rose (Maryam Zakaria), who also invites him over to her bedroom for a night of passion.

Even before the three friends can really get intimate with their respective partners, Robert Pereira returns to the college. It turns out that Rose is Robert’s second wife, Mary is his daughter from his first wife, and Marlowe is his sister. Sensing that the three must’ve gotten intimate with his wife, daughter and sister, Robert Pereira goes after them. Amar, Meet and Prem try to escape from the city but just then, their wives reach there.

It is now a cat-and-mouse game between Robert Pereira and the three friends. Meanwhile, Hardik has escaped from the mental hospital and wants to kill Pereira. He blackmails Amar, Meet and Prem to eliminate Robert Pereira by threatening to make public the MMS clips he has of them in bed with Mary, Marlowe and Rose respectively.

Do the three friends kill Pereira and save their own lives or do they save Pereira and put their lives on the line? Do the wives get to know that their husbands were ready to go to bed with the women they had befriended in the college reunion? Do the three raunchy women continue to be terrorised by Robert Pereira or do they revolt?

Tushar Hiranandani and Milap Milan Zaveri’s story and screenplay are an assemblage of gags rather than a free-flowing drama. While some sequences are hilarious and some funny, there are also some which are plain boring. Three sequences which stand out for their brilliance are: the one in which Meet and Prem watch with bewilderment Mary pulling out things from Amar’s bag behind a screen, and assume something very different; the scene in which the three friends, each flanked by his wife and girlfriend, get sexually charged while drinking soup; and the one in which Amar poses as a pimp for Meet and Prem, both in drag, to fool Hardik as they want to get hold of his cell phone to delete the MMS clips. There are other scenes abounding in double-meaning dialogues (written by Milap Milan Zaveri) and vulgar gestures, which will find favour with the masses, front-benchers and the youth. There is a lot of skin show and there are also plenty of adult jokes and dialogues, which will appeal to the audience. However, these very ingredients and scenes will repulse the orthodox and family audiences as also many women. There are some scenes, especially in the second half, which do not have the desired impact. Some scenes are outright cheap and leave a bad taste in the mouth. Perhaps, the climax could have been better as it does not match up to the highlight sequences, but again, the dialogues in the final scene somewhat make up for the ordinary climax.

Before coming to the performances of the actors, it must be mentioned that the acting often stands out because of the vulgar scenes and dialogues rather than the performances per se. Ritesh Deshmukh does a fine job with his poker-faced comedy. His sense of comic timing is excellent. Vivek Oberoi is good and sincere. Aftab Shivdasani, who needs to reduce his weight, performs well. All the three heroes are in character and have been aided by double-entendres. Manjari Fadnis does an average job as Tulsi. Karishma Tanna is exuberant in the role of Unnatti. Sonalee is okay as Mamta. Kainaat Arora exudes oomph and gives a free and uninhibited performance. Bruna Abdalah and Maryam Zakaria add to the glamour and sex quotient. Pradeep Rawat does fairly well. Suresh Menon leaves a mark.

Indra Kumar’s direction is good and the best part is that his narrative style is unapologetic. The film greatly appeals to the target audience. Musically (Anand Raaj Anand and Sanjeev-Darshan), the film has songs which aren’t chartbusters but they are enjoyable because of their pace and racy lyrics (Kumaar and Manoj Darpan). Song picturisations (by Ganesh Acharya and Chinni Prakash) are okay. Background music is effective. Rituraj Narain’s cinematography and Rajat Poddar’s sets are alright. R.P. Yadav’s action scenes are commonplace. Editing (Sanjay Sankla) is crisp.

On the whole, Grand Masti will be loved by the youth, masses and front-benchers and disliked by the family audience and ladies. In the final tally, it will prove to be a richly rewarding fare.