Much like the general elections that are held in every five years to constitute the system of governance in our country, which might seem to many a comedy in itself, the director Mrighdeep Singh Lamba has taken the onus upon himself that it would remain his most important responsibility to deliver a ‘Fukrey’ every five years to tickle the funny bone of the audiences of India, even if it requires him to use brainless slapsticks and scatological references to get the film sold to millions and millions of Indian audiences, who have now started to expect something more matured and enjoyable from the Bollywood directors, given the craze that has been created by a number of recently released movies such as ‘Pathaan’, ‘Gadar Part 2’ and ‘Jawan’. By keeping the audiences in waiting for another round of hilarious comedy and laughter to set in, this time, we are not quite sure as to how the reception with the audiences would go as the trailer reveals a slow progression of the story with too much focus being given to the ‘potty humor’ that a seventh or an eighth grade child would find funny.

The first installment of the film would rely on a simple hook with the character of ‘Choocha’ (played by Varun Sharma) dreaming of something and getting the dream interpreted by his friend Hunny (played by Pulkit Sharma). Other characters, such as Lali (played by Manjoy Singh) and the Panditji (played by the veteran and ever funny talented artiste of Bollywood, Pankaj Tripathi) join in too to enhance the effect of comedy throughout the movie. The second installment of the movie revolved around the concept of something called the ‘deja choo’ with the third installment now focusing on how to strike up an alignment between the preternatural psychical abilities and the physical abilities, however, peppered with too much scatological lunacy.

Fall of the ‘Fukrey’

When the first version of the series of comedy was released in the year 2013, the film got an instant reception from a great number of audiences. The witty transition of the plot coupled with an equally interesting rib tickling humor and endearing characters on the run. The characters were brought to life by their amazing on-screen humor and synchronization that they had shared on the screen. The impeccable timing of the comic and the various quirks and nuances with their foibles in getting through various situations that would come their way truly made the first part of the series a comic masterpiece. However, it seems that the director Mrighdeep Singh Lamba goes by the concept of with one masterpiece first part comes an equally boring second part as the second installment of the movie that was released in the year 2017, ‘Fukrey Returns’, was nothing short of a crackpot adventure. With each passing sequel of the movie, the comedy vibes that are being produced started getting stoner with the inner content of the story slowly and slowly losing its comic lusture. In this latest addition to the ‘Fukrey’ series, the characters of Hunny (played by Pulkit Samrat), Choocha (Varun Sharma), Lali (Manjot Singh) and the ever funny Panditji (Pankaj Tripathi) meekly join hands against their common ‘rival’, the character of Bholi Punjaban (played by Richa Chadha).

Overview of the Plot

Nothing much could be said about the plot because it does not let us say much about it. The story begins with a neighborhood in the eastern part of the national capital region of New Delhi (NCR New Delhi) with the character of Bholi Punjaban contesting for elections and based her campaign for elections on the troubling issue of the shortage of proper supply of the drinking water in that area. In this issue, she is being extended the support of an iniquitous tanker mafia, who plans something sinister with a minister in the office. The ‘fukrey’ characters were roped in to provide some aid in the conditioning of the election campaign but ended up in getting everything botched up for the campaigner. This makes them getting packed off to the country of South Africa, where things started to go away for them in a diamond mine followed by an electrocution in an amusement park. In quite a sudden and absurd turn of the story, the two friends, Choocha and Hunny discovered that they have an innate ability to turn everything into petrol through their sweat and urine.

The Laxity of the Plot Disengages the Audiences

With the first part being a little bit lazy and getting dragged unnecessarily, the film started to revolve around the scatological humor heavily from the second part onwards. Such crass becomes the quality of the jokes that it would require a great deal of effort on the part of the audiences to even maintain a smile on their face, let alone laughter. It would not be surprising if someone would find it cringe also. We may feel like smirking once or twice at the way certain situations have been shaped out but there would hardly be any moment or dialogue within the film that we could be guffawing at in the literal sense of the word.

Putrid Humor Starts Smelling Fecal

From the next half of the film, it seems to us audiences that even if the characters played by the actors do have the capability to glue us, the spectators of the movie, to our seats, the situation of the story or the way it has been given a shape seems to be extremely disengaging. It would have been much better on the side of the director Mrighdeep Singh Lamba to keep himself clean of the putrid humor and instead apply some witty punch lines that would be funny and would be provoking thoughts at the same time. When too much of the toilet humor is being thrown at us for us to enjoy, we instead feel disgusted and wonder whether the writers ran short of ideas or got the plot in their head while doing their regular ‘bathroom job’. On being burdened with too much of these ‘potty pleasure’, it would not be surprising even if some of us start getting a putrid smell from the film. Though the writer of  the film, Vipul Vig, maintains his best to keep the film totally engaged, there have been several instances within the film, where the track has been stretched without it having to be stretched. On top of this, it has been pepper sprayed with mostly unfunny and sometimes funny humor. Though there have been certain instances, where Vipul Vig has tried to steer the movie clean out of the ‘potty’ things, the audiences then badly fail to clear their mind of the scatological junk and clutter that have been fed to them.

Absurd, Erratic and Slow-Burning

With these things being the quality of a movie, the film takes a lot of time to sep into the minds of the audience. Though a slow building up of the plot of the movie had worked wonders in the first ever version of the movie, ‘Fukrey’, as it was important to let the audience slowly and slowly get accustomed to the type of the characters that would be unfolding before their eyes, the third installment seems to be too much languid in its pace than the first two versions of the series. The sinister character of Bholi Punjaban has been made so less sinister than earlier that the character stars getting a bit boring with each passage of time. The characters of Hunny and Lalit have not been much explored in the movie, quite similar to, what had happened in the previous two versions. However, in this desert of dry slapstick and toilet comedy, the only oasis could be our Panditji, Pankaj Tripathi, given that he can excel as a first-class comedian in any situation that he would be put in. The South African actor, late Olanokiotan Gbolabao Lucas (he passed away in the year 2021), was a perfect choice in the role of the bodyguard of Bholi Punjaban. However, Pankaj Tripathi do need a double mention as it seemed that he must have thoroughly enjoyed playing the character in the movie.

Attempts to Give Social Message Fade

One thing that could really make the movie, ‘Fukrey 3’, different (though in the wrong sense) from its previous two installments is it attempt to give a social message. However, the film badly fails in that attempt too. The character of Hunny turns emotionally patriotic suddenly only to yell out at others, “I won’t let India become Syria and Delhi… Baghdad”. This attempt to insert some patriotic moment within the film did not go work to leave any impact on the minds of the audience and seems to be a little forcefully included for the sake of tickling the patriotic side of the audiences, who did not feel a tad more or less patriotic on hearing the dialogue. Before the first installment of the film was released, the comedy genre of the Hindi movie industry had only been experiencing the slacker version of the comedies that would mostly deal with mundane and urban life issues. While the comedy movies would be mostly set in the posh locations of cities such as Mumbai, it was the first installment of the ‘Fukrey’ series that started the comedy films to be set in and around the semi-urban areas of the eastern part of New Delhi. Though the character of Choocha was felt a little bit out of proportion, yet he would induce within us the feelings of some funny friend, who would be living next door. However, with each and every progression that was being made within the movie, the film started getting boring, irritatingly decadent and dumber.

Thus, all that can be said about the way this film has turned out to be is that this comedy is quite truly a ‘comedy of errors’ and filled with errors from the very starting to very conclusion of the movie. Though it would seem to be enjoyable for a certain point of time, especially, if you are a seventh or an eighth grader, who would like to engage in some ‘fecal jokes’, for those, who are in need of some good natured film that would fit the genre of comedy, this review should act as a deterrent in your wasting your money in booking tickets for something that is worth of a ‘toilet’.