User reviews

From the days of 'Ikke Pe Ikka' to 'Heyy Baby', Sajid Khan has portrayed himself and his ideas as nothing but slapstick. Drawing enormous criticism for the stupidity that was 'Heyy Baby', he seems to have come to his best.... which doesn't put him on any sort of pedestal but certainly gives you fair returns for your ticket price. While paying tribute to film makers of yesteryears, Sajid Khan introduces us to his latest concoction of slapstick silly comedy - 'Housefull'.

Arush (Akshay Kumar) is such a loser..... smitten with bad luck, his remorse takes him to his childhood buddy, Bob (Ritesh Deshmukh) in London. The attempted comedy in this part, with Hetal (Lara Dutta) falling out of the window, the super powered Vaccuum cleaner and Prada leave you worried about the rest of the film. In the hope of eliminating his bad luck spree, Arush gets married to Devika (Jiah Khan), the daughter of millionaire Casino baron Samtani (Randhir Kapoor) but all is not well after they arrive in an Italian holiday resort. Chunky Pandey at this point provides some refreshing comedy, far better than any he has attempted. Arush meets Sandy (Deepika Padukone), they meet Bob & Hetal, they all meet Hetal's Pappa (Boman Irani) and they in turn meet Sandy's Anna Krishna Rao (Arjun Rampal) and in the end, they all meet the Queen of England.

The bits with Chunky Pandey and Boman Irani are indeed funny but out of the lead actors, Ritesh Deshmukh gets much of the fun dialogues and scenes whereas Akshay Kumar has to cope with being the loser who is put in impossible circumstances. Deepika was anyways only good at smiling so she gets to do that a lot here, Lara Dutta has given her best especially with the Gujrati dialogues while Jiah Khan remained skimpy at best. Chunky Pandey was very passable, given some funny dialogues and situations whereas Boman Irani rose to yet another challenge of being a part of this madness and yet standing out with such a convincingly funny character. Not only does he display his versatility but he rises above all with his spontaneity and hilarious expressions. Watch out for his remarkable thumkas while sleep-walking during a song.

Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy may seem over-qualified for this film but their rocking remake of 'Apni toh Jaise Taise' (It's Jhakaas!) and 'O Girl you're mine' with some hilarious lyrics by Amitabh Bhattacharya in 'He's such a loser' and 'Papa jag jaayega' make this a fun soundtrack.

Sajid Khan has by no means done anything revolutionary here. Pretty sure he didn't intend to either. 'Housefull' falls in the category of 'Welcome', 'Dhamaal', 'Partner' etc and not among the all time greats. Thus, you get a silly but crazy entertainer which thankfully in many parts is howlarious with some really funny one-liners. But then you also have inane slapstick with a vaccuum cleaner, tiger, monkey and laughing gas to no effect. These days, such scenes are just embarrassing to watch.....

Yes, be sure to leave your brain at home as they say and only then will you be able to enjoy this movie to an extent. After a dry spell that consisted only of live IPL matches in theaters, this is a comedy we need before some serious stuff that is lined up for the next 2 months. Don't spend more than Rs. 150 and you will agree that it was at least 'Paisa vasool'.

• 6.99 on a scale of 1-10.

Houseful, another movie in a long list of Bollywood movies with stories "inspired" by a Hollywood movie.

However Houseful is unique as it has not been adapted from one but several Hollywood movies at one time. It has shades of William H Macy's The Cooler, Ben Stiller's starrer Along came Polly, Owen Wilson's You, Me and Dupree and Meet the Parents.

Being heavily adapted from so many sources makes the movie's storyline completely illogical and one would probably have to check his brain out when entering the theater to enjoy such a film.

Another thing that disappointed me was the background score. It did not support the film and felt very minimal and weak. Given the number of hit songs in the movie the background score was a complete letdown.

However, despite having the above mentioned flaws the movie still works. It has many moments which are very hilarious and which makes this movie a complete masala entertainer.

To conclude this movie may not be an intellectual masterpiece but the movie is still entertaining and is a complete paisa wassol

Housefull is a movie to watch out with your friends who don't carry their intellect always with them, at least not at places where its not required. You are finished if you are going a Sazid Khan's comedy movie with some brain. Don't put your logic, because it hurts when it fails, and it hurts more when it fails at every second scene. So Housefull is a flick to watch out for full fun and big laughter but with above mentioned condition : No Brain please :). Some sequences of the movie are killing and make you roll on your seat with laughter. It's a new kind of weirdo bollywood comedy on the ancient plot of lies and misunderstanding created out of it. Thanks Sazid for not reusing the formula of infinite chaos. Akshay Kumar's acting is Bindaas and his over innocent expressions bring numerous smiles at times. At places Sazid is 10/10 in creating situations and comedy out of it even if it is not taking story anywhere. Music is average apart from 1 track "Mar Javaan". Overall its a watch to pull out your stress. Just go, watch, laugh and enjoy it.

Given that this movie is made by one of the worst directors (Sajid Khan), I wasn't expecting much. It did make me laugh in parts (mainly because of Akshay Kumar's comic flair) but 'Housefull' is pretty much full of crap. A jinxed Aarav, or whatever his name is (Akshay Kumar), tries to find happiness but everywhere he goes, things fall apart. He finally lands on the bed of Bob (Ritesh Deshmukh)and Bobba (Lara Dutta). They arrange for him to get married to their boss's daughter Jiah (Jiah Khan). However, on their wedding night, Jiah cheats on Aarav. A heartbroken Aarav attempts suicide in the Mediterranean but he is rescued by an airhead (Peepika Padukone). What follows is more garbage as the plot changes from one thing to another. This is hardly any different from the usual trash Bollywood has been churning lately, in the name of comedy. A lot of money has been wasted on it as 'Housefull' has been expensively shot in Italy and England. The sets are lavish and grand. The soundtrack is dreadful. Of the performances, Akshay Kumar manages to be funny again but his choice of awful movies is becoming routine. Arjun Rampal is the other actor who delivers a solid performance. Of course, it needs to be mentioned that 'Housefull' rips off several Hollywood films which I won't even bother listing.

After having watched all the video blogs and so forth on Bollywood Hungama, I was really looking forward to this one. But what a major disappointment. I don't think they were able to carry a common thread of a plot throughout the movie and only parts of it were funny. And those funny parts were so reminiscent of this other Bollywood film. What was the name.... it had Anil Kapoor, Fardeen Khan, and Salman Khan.

I was also SHOCKED to see a 4-star rating on Bollywood Hungama. Definitely won't put any faith in to Taran Adarsh's reviews from here on out. Just because the movie heavily advertised and promoted via the site, they inflated the ratings. Complete BS. That made it all the more disappointing to watch.

Akshay Kumar didn't really have a good 2009 despite having some major projects lined up, with the box office response not living up to expectations. To some, that spells a loser, and the film takes an exaggerated response in having him play the unluckiest man on Earth, Arush, and he's so unlucky that Macau casinos employ him to walk their grounds to ensure winning streaks turn into losing ones. And House Full turns out to be one half of a familiar spin from contemporary Hollywood comedies before becoming its own film after the interval.

The first half spends considerable time developing the character of Arush, whom we see leaving his job to go back to stay with his best buddy Bob (Ritesh Deskmukh) and his wife Heetal (Lara Dutta), two casino employees in London. This segment turns out to be You, Me and Dupree as his unwelcome gatecrash turns the life of the couple upside down with his bad luck rubbing off into their home. Sometimes you can feel that the comedy here is just trying way too hard that it borders on the ridiculous and was flogging the dead unfunny horse, especially with the aftermath of Arush and Bob getting electrocuted.

Then it becomes a mix of a loose Forgetting Sarah Marshall and The Heartbreak Kid, with Bob and Heetal matchmaking him with their boss's daughter Devika (Jiah Khan), and it seemed like the perfect match of the Traditional Indian Boy and Girl, only for a surprise to emerge when frolicking in an Italian resort for their honeymoon, and Arush meeting up with his One True Love with Sandy, played by the lovely Deepika Padukone. Comedy here came from Chunky Pandey who plays the hotel owner Akhri Pasta with a penchant of lying and construing them as jokes, and his over the top demeanour actually was remotely funny, even though you'd learn to take everything he says eventually with a pinch of salt, with one key lie being the cause for a running gag for Arush being hurried away from the scene by Bob and Heetal each time Devika enters it.

The story is about pretences, and how in the name of saving one's face and reputation, lies lead to bigger lies, stemming from wanting to impress family members. For Heetal, she has consistently told that she's married to a rich boy and living it up in a big mansion, doing so to impress her dad (Boman Irani) who has frowned upon her decision to stay in London with Bob. For Sandy, her lie involves something similar to her brother Major Krishna Rao (a stoic faced Arjun Rampal) whom she thinks will frown upon her relationship with the loser Arush, and hence both couples have set the tone for the second half after the interval, playing on the theme and rationale of being perfectly OK to lie if it's done for a noble cause, the definition of noble being quite narrow and for personal benefit.

But here's where the entire film lifts off into the comedic stratosphere, as the people they lie to begin to turn up, and lies leading to bigger ones, with the best parts being the case of mistaken identities which the couples have to continue playing it up, and by the midway mark of their gag, there's a convoluted web of relationships that one group has to play off the other in order to keep the truth from exploding. Somehow it also turned primarily into a guy's film, with the female leads in Dutta and Padukone being largely supporting roles, and the male leads getting into plenty of shenanigans filled with homophobic suspicions. With the arrival of Krishna though there's a tinge of Meet the Parents with Arjun Rampal taking on Robert De Niro's role as the military intelligence interrogator casting that wary eye (hand singals adopted as well) on Arush, whose propensity of being the worst jinx in the house getting conveniently forgotten.

If you're game for a madcap time where comedy stem from identities being swapped and the reliance of wits to get out of sticky situations, then this film is for you although you have to endure a lacklustre first half before the narrative picks up. It's almost like Akshay Kumar's De Dana Dan from last year with that spiderweb of fake relationship ties that will keep you engaged, with finely crafted musical sequences. We know AK can dance, and for all the flak Deepika Padukone got for being stiff, I thought she's slowly gaining her groove as seen by the numerous numbers here. My favourite song here will have to be Loser, but this film, thanks to its second half, had prevented it from tanking like one.

It's a great comedy movie ! And Akshay kumar was in top of everything ! And Lara dutta too! But lame story like tales with no logic and no motive ! But I can assure you will enjoy it ! Also one thing idk but why bollywood always have to give space to foreigners in their frame i mean they can shoot with indian people too ! I saw these things in exactly every movie made in back 9 or 10 years ! Whatever tho ! This movie is nice and you will enjoy it !

I just saw this movie and I think I need to write about it. I missed his debut "Hey Baby" but heard from friends it was good and the new one "Housefull" seems promising. Well, they were wrong. This film is as bad as it can get. The story revolves around Akshay Kumar who has the worst luck and brings bad luck to others. Finding and marrying his true love should supposedly cure it. However this thing loses focus pretty early as many other characters keep coming with their own stories and agendas. Story takes a new turn every few minutes and you kinda forget what happened before or why is what's happening, happening. Bad slapstick throughout (very hard to laugh, you actually think 'was i supposed to laugh on this?'), super bad over acting, bad or no story line, no character development, no justification for whatever's happening and of course bad direction. I can go on and on, but let me summarize with this - If a Hollywood comedies fan (ben stiller, Adam Sander kinds), with no movie making experience, makes such a movie because he can afford it. Well that's what "Housefull" is more or less like.

I love to watch movies which are entertaining.So,I enjoyed watching Housefull very much because it is a very good entertaining movie without hurting the intelligence of the viewer.This is an excellent movie in terms of Bollywood entertainment.I am sure that this movie will not get any awards and this movie will not get any 5 star rating from expert critics.Sajid Khan is not the best director in Bollywood.I feel that Sajid Khan- the director is superior to many Bollywood directors because he exactly knows what the audience wants. Housefull is full of comedy.Editing is very fast.The length and time duration of the movie is correct.Production values are very good. The hero of this movie is the screenplay.This movie is made from the audience's point of movie. So, ninety percent of the movie buffs are going to enjoy watching this movie.I remember that Manmohan Desai's movies were never appreciated but people used to watch three or four times. I can assure that after you finish watching Housefull from beginning to end, you will surely have a big smile on your face.You will also like to watch it two or three times because this is a complete repeat value movie. This is not overconfidence because I have this belief that this movie is purely made for the audience.And when I say audience then it does not mean only the masses or the front benchers or single screen audience. By audience, I mean people who love to watch movies for entertainment. I feel cinema is about entertainment.No movie can change anybody's life. No movie can cure cancer. No movie can bring changes in the society. Movies are made mainly for providing entertainment. About 200 to 300 movies get released every year from Bollywood but only 5 or 6 movies become box office successes and ninety nine percent of the movie become flops. And the main reason for these flops are that these are not entertaining movies. These movies actually irritate people and that is why they become flops.Those filmmakers are making movies for themselves and not for the audience.I hate movies which irritate and bore people. I love movies which entertain people.Housefull will entertain you completely because this movie is made for the audience.

Why do I never learn? Why do I keep going to Akshay Kumar films, when they disappoint so consistently?

My latest Akshay Kumar mistake is an unfunny comic caper named "Housefull". After the debacles that were "Blue", "Kambakht Ishq", "Chandni Chowk to China", now comes this new atrocity from Sajid Khan, who earlier had made the rotten-only-in-patches film "Heyy Babyy" (what's with the atrocious spelling?), a genial Indian take on "Three Men and a Baby". Somehow I evaded "Singh is Kingg" (there we go with the spelling again). Even I could tell that Akshay plus the blandly beautiful and seriously wooden Katrina Kaif would be an industrial-strength double whammy to be avoided at any cost.

I have a soft spot for Sajid Khan, because his sister Farah Khan makes the most awesome Hindi entertainers ("Main Hoon Na" and "Om Shanti Om") and is possibly one of the smartest, funniest, wackiest people in India. In short, I adore Farah Khan, and feel I must support any cinematic endeavor by her or her many family members. Her husband Sirish Kunder, a topnotch editor, made the passable "Jaan-E-Man" with Akshay Kumar, Salman Khan, and Preity Zinta, and Akshay was actually kind of endearing in it. Her cousins Zoya and Farhan Akhtar have made some excellent films: the flawless "Luck By Chance" and the clever and charming "Dil Chahta Hai"; as an actor, Farhan hit the bullseye in "Luck By Chance", "Rock On!!", and the psychological thriller "Kartik calling Kartik".

So, I'm not a total loser for going to watch Akshay Kumar movies. It's just that he appears to have absolutely no instinct for choosing good films, and sometimes, inspite of this, he ends up in a competent masala Hindi entertainer ("Dil To Pagal Hai", "Aitraaz" was a guilty pleasure...tacky, but Priyanka Chopra was fascinating. Akshay was very good in "Dhadkan", co-starring Shilpa Shetty after her first nose job and Suneil Shetty.), but mostly he works in simply dreadful movies. At the wrap of each awful flick, he probably drawls, "I'll have my check now, thank you very much!" and toddles off to the next excruciatingly bad film, gummy grin and all.

Arjun Rampal, Riteish Desmukh, and the ever reliable Boman Irani (playing a Gujarati businessman, this time) are the other men in this movie with a frat boy sensibility. And for the frat boys, we must have bodacious babes, so the polished and professional Deepika Padukone, the usually smart and sensuous Lara Dutta, and the sexy, but frankly terrible Jiah Khan, a fully clothed Malaika Arora (hello!), and Lilette Dubey are roped in to do the needful. Except Arjun plays Malaika and Deepika's brother...he must be still wondering how that bit of injustice came about.

To be fair, there is about 10 minutes of delightful nonsense, when practically the entire cast lands up under various pretexts at a house to make it the titular "Housefull" and I did laugh out aloud once, but that meant sitting through 1.5 hours to arrive at the funny bit, and then another 45 or so minutes when things went back to being unamusing.

Randhir Kapoor, looking porcine and hollering all the time, makes one of his periodic comebacks, playing Jiah Khan's father. These days he is more famous for being Karisma and Kareena Kapoor's father. Randhir Kapoor, you will remember, had quite the busy career in the 70s and 80s. Even as a romantic leading man, he was fat, cheerful, laid-back, wickedly funny in print, and on screen, as well. He had the Kapoor weakness for plenty of fine food and drink, never ever worked out, and was best buds with Rekha. Together they gave many politically incorrect, hilarious interviews in various film periodicals, poking fun at career-minded, goody-goody colleagues like Hema Malini and anyone who made the mistake of crossing them. They worked together non-stop in a few A, but mostly B-grade potboilers, and were like truant school kids having the time of their lives.

Then Amitabh Bachchan happened to Rekha: she shed many kilos (including Randhir Kapoor), her screeching laughter and her irresponsible teenager ways, learnt Urdu, how to conduct herself like a lady, and took to giving those ambiguous, mystical New Age interviews which were all about the mysterious "He", "Him", "the One" in her life. I wish she would return to being the hugely fun person she was, and do a riotous comedy. Her "Khoobsurat" days are over, but surely someone can do an "Auntie Mame" or "Travels with my Aunt" with her, and she would be an absolute hoot in it.

Randhir Kapoor could only have had a career during that period of Hindi cinema. In these times of buff bodies, six-pack abs, and bulging biceps, he would never have landed a gig. It's a shame, too, because now it appears to be all about the toned body and not quite as much as the performance or personality.

Arjun Rampal is an anachronism: he has the looks, body, dignity, plenty of screen presence and talent of a matinée idol of old. He did very well in this idiotic movie, giving much more than it deserved.

I don't know if these observations have anything at all to do with "Housefull", but I felt like letting off some steam after being gypped yet again by an Akshay Kumar movie.

Why am I disappointed? The film is made by the same person who had a television series in which he made fun of people like Mahesh Bhatt and Anu Malik for stealing there ideas and music from American movies and musicians.

The same person (Sajid Khan) copied his first movie "Heyy Babyy" from "3 Men and a Baby" and now his new movie "House full" is a complete rip-off of "Meet the Parents" and "The Heartbreak Kid" both coincidentally star Ben Stiller in the lead.

This proves that he (Sajid Khan) is the biggest hypocrite in the entire Indian film industry, he was not even able to copy the movie properly, I don't know how much they are paying the critics to give it a positive rating.

Don't even watch this movie if you are paid by Sajid Khan and Sajid Nadiadwala, don't watch it for free, don't watch it or you will regret it.

Regretted watching this movie totally. Sajid Khan dedicates this movie to some of the "entertainment" directors of yore. But his crappy sense of humor would not make them have their names associated with this film. Tries too hard and bends too low to induce laughter into nonsensical scenes. Writes a joke for a plot.

Akshay Kumar is supposed to be the guy with the worst luck but sitting in the theater one would have the feeling that it is he/she who has the worst luck. Well, there's not much to talk about the ladies here. They shout, wear super-tiny clothes, dance and look good.

To sum it all, some under-the-belt jokes and over the top acting by ultra-glamorous non-actors. Saving grace=None. Worth a skip!!

After a long painful drought (thanks to the exam season and IPL matches) of plain boring to irritating films arrives Sajid Khan's Housefull. While in totality it does fall short of being the big great summer entertainer that it is been claiming to be, it however manages to bring many laughs for you. However, eventually it settles down in familiar territory.

Housefull narrates the tale of Aarush (Akshay), a perpetually unlucky bloke and a loser in life who moves into the house of his best buddy cum another loser, Bob (Ritesh) and his wife Hetal (Lara). But things continue to go wrong for Aarush. Convinced that true love can fade away his bad luck jinx, a desperate Aarush enters into many complicated situations while seeking it. Thus enter Sandy (Deepika) and Devika (Jiah) in his life. Things complicate further with the arrival of Sandy's angry brother Major Krishna Rao (Arjun Rampal) and Hetal's estranged dad Batuk Patel (Boman Irani). How Aarush and Bob in an attempt to hoodwink Krishna Rao and Batuk go on creating more confusion leading to a mirthful chaos forms the rest of the plot.

Much was expected from Sajid Khan who has been literally claiming from rooftops for weeks now that he has made the year's biggest blockbuster. Though he has not entirely let us down, you do wish he could have opted for a more innovative plot.

From the movie preview/trailer, it appeared that the movie is copied from HANGOVER. But I was wrong. Almost all the scenes in this movie has been copied from many different movies e.g., Hangover, Night At The Museum, Meet the Parents. Looks like Sajid doesn't know how to make a movie. A director is not a director if he / she copies all the scenes from Hollywood hits and claims to be his own.

As far as the story goes, nothing to talk about. It's crap movie and moreover in some places it appears to be racial. As far as acting goes, nothing worth mentioning. Akshay Kumar and Ritesh are just repeating the same performance. In most of the scenes, Deepika and Laura Dutta clothes are highly inappropriate. Wonder sometimes if this what women in India wear. Not worth watching.

Housefull is undoubtedly wonderful comedy of the year for Akshay's acting and Ritesh's comic acts. Boman Irani steals the show especially in second half's. The movie has all ingredients for a watchable good movie. At least for this reason everybody should support the movie. The movie is OK with many funny moments.Nobody can forget the scene that takes place where everybody laughs.Sajid has won again without doubts from the audiences.The song "Apni Toh Jaise Taise" is surely fantastic. I feel that Indian audiences has been always supporting good comic movies and therefore Housefull will get maximum support to become a blockbuster hit.Finally I want to say only one thing that as an Indian whenever I see comedy movies I feel I am young and healthy.

What a horrendous piece of crap?!!! I sat there gaping at the screen in stunned silence as scene after supposedly funny scene played on it. At one point I considered just drowning myself in my glass of Coke, but then I thought, this isn't my fault!!! I should kill all those who associated with the film... perhaps that would calm my blood-lust. Enduring this sorry excuse for a comedy is like pulling your nails off with pincers... No, wait... that would be less painful than enduring this.. Crappy performances, stupid and plagiarized jokes from Meet the Parents and Night at the Museum ( amongst others) which a 3 year old would cringe at, insipid dialog and the stupidest directorial effort( non-effort, really) that i have seen since Christ walked the earth make this film one of the dumbest to date. Sajid Khan should stick to stand up routines ( preferably in hotels and dhabas) so that we don't have to endure his stupid arrogant face on T.V. To sum it up.. DON'T WATCH THIS SCHMUCK!! Watch some paint dry instead.. Vastly more entertaining... AND OH, SHAME ON YOU, AKSHAY KUMAR...

I went to watch Hosefull by knowing clearly that this is a Sajid Khan's movie, and it has to be stupid and dumb. I watched the movie Housefull with my gf and very few audiences in the cinema hall. But I laughed and enjoyed the movie through out. I wanted to give a 4 or 5 rating, and even didn't wanted to right a review for the movie. But after watching worse (BC) and worst (Kites) movies one after another, I have to do some justification to the Sajid Khan's movie. So I'm giving Housefull a fully comedy and entertaining movie 8 out of 10, after watching Badmash Comapny and Kites. I gave Kites 1 out of 10 and wanted to give Badmash Company 0 out of 10.

I went to watch this movie with out much prior knowledge of the director. I don't really watch Hindi movies a lot and this (movie) is one of the reason why I have stopped watching them. "Does the director really think the audience is that stupid?" was my reaction. I felt really insulted watching this movie. I laughed only once through out the movie. First part is absolutely pathetic. Second part is barely watchable. The movie is really painful to watch. If it wasn't for my wife I would have quit 20 minutes in to the movie. The director owes me $12 and 2 1/2 hours of my life. The only good thing about the movie is watching the actresses. I am forced to give it 1/10. Shame on the director and the rest of the crew for making such a worthless movie.