HAPPY BHAG JAYEGI

Eros International and Colour Yellow Productions’ Happy Bhag Jayegi is a love story.

Daman Singh Bagga (Jimmy Shergill), a corporator, is engaged to be married to Happy (Diana Penty) in Amritsar. However, Happy runs away from the marriage on the day of the engagement even as the celebrations are on, because she loves Guddu (Ali Fazal) and wants to marry him. Since her father (Kanwaljeet Singh) is against her marriage with Guddu, the plan is that she would escape in a truck of flowers sent by her boyfriend. Guddu does nothing for his livelihood and is fond of music.

As luck would have it, Happy lands in the wrong truck which reaches Lahore in Pakistan, in the house of ex-governor Javed Ahmed (Jawed Sheikh) who is obsessed with the idea of seeing his son, Bilal (Abhay Deol), enter politics and change the face of Pakistan. On his part, Bilal has no political inclinations whatsoever. Bilal is to be married to Zoya Rehmani (Momal Sheikh), daughter of Zia Rehmani (Manoj Bakshi).

By the by, Bilal and Zoya understand Happy’s plight and decide to get her married to Guddu in Pakistan itself and then deport the two to India. Towards this end, Bilal and police officer Usman Afridi (Piyush Mishra) come to Amritsar in search of Guddu. They bring Guddu to Lahore under the pretext of making him a singer. But no sooner does Guddu leave for Lahore, Bagga gets to know the truth – that his runaway fiancée, Happy, is in Pakistan and that Bilal would get her married to Guddu. All along, Bilal has to hide the truth about Happy and Guddu’s Indian origin from his strict father as well as from the Pakistani media.

To stop the wedding from taking place, Bagga leaves for Lahore. He is accompanied by Happy’s father.

What happens in Pakistan? Does Guddu marry Happy? Or is Happy forced to wed Bagga?

Mudassar Aziz’s story is quite different from the usual love stories one sees in Hindi films. Since there’s also a track of Bilal seemingly falling in love with Happy, it becomes a love story of a girl and three guys. The drama in the first half is quite interesting and consumes the audience but it becomes slow and a bit boring in the second half. The climax is again quite engaging. Mudassar Aziz’s screenplay emphasises on comedy and is funny throughout. However, the screenplay looks contrived at several strategic points, which comes in the way of the viewers’ full enjoyment. For instance, the track of Bilal and Zoya deciding to get Happy married off to Guddu comes all too suddenly and, therefore, looks a bit forced. Similarly, Happy disappearing in Lahore before her wedding looks like a weak link included only so that the drama can be stretched. However, it must be said to the credit of the writer that despite the contrived twists, he has kept the comic flavour of the screenplay alive, which ensures that the audiences feel entertained, the forced scenes notwithstanding. The post-interval portion, in which there is all-round confusion, is not as hilarious as it ought to have been. Mudassar Aziz’s dialogues are lovely and add to the humour quotient.

Abhay Deol is eandearing in the role of Bilal Ahmed and acts with effortless ease. He is natural as ever. Diana Penty looks chic and performs well enough to make a mark. Jimmy Shergill is effective as Daman Singh Bagga and it is fun to watch him express his frustration every now and then after Happy has run away. Ali Fazal does a fine job as Guddu and is cute. Momal Sheikh makes her presence amply felt as Zoya Rehmani. Piyush Mishra is remarkable in the role of police officer Usman Afridi. His patent dialogues and his chaste Urdu add to the fun element in the film. Jawed Sheikh leaves a mark as ex-governor Javed Ahmed. Jagat Rawat (as Fakhru) and Ayesha Raza Mishra (as Rifat Bi) provide fantastic support. Kanwaljeet Singh has his moments as Happy’s dad. Manoj Bakshi makes his mark as Zoya’s father, Zia Rehmani. Gaurav Dixit (as Bagga’s sidekick, Dimpy), lends lovely support. Nilima Sharma (as Reeto), Ashu Sharma (as Winkle), Rana Pratap Sengar (as Rasheed), Tasha Bhambhra (as Amjad), Lankesh Bhardwaj (as Rajinder), Surjeet Singh Rajput (as Moin), Neetu Pandey (as Ishtiyaq Khan), Manu Rishi (as Sardar) and the rest are adequate.

Mudassar Aziz’s direction is fairly nice. Credit to him for having kept the thread of comedy and humour running throughout the film. Sohail Sen’s music is nice. The ‘Yaaram’ and ‘Gabru’ songs are appealing while the other numbers also have lilt. Mudassar Aziz’s lyrics may not be easy on the lips but they are, nevertheless, good. Raju Khan’s choreography in all but one song is fair. The ‘Gabru’ song, choregraphed by Caesar Gonsalves, is quite eye-filling. Sohail Sen’s background music is effective. Saurabh Goswami’s cinematography is of a nice standard. Wasiq Khan’s production designing is appropriate. Ninad Khanolkar’s editing is sharp.

On the whole, Happy Bhag Jayegi is good in parts only, but the contrived screenplay will do the film in. In the final tally, it will not be able to do much at the box-office.