'Thank You?' No, thank you

Film: Thank You (U/A)
Director: Anees Bazmee
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Bobby Deol, Irrfan Khan, Suniel Shetty, Sonam Kapoor and others
Rating: **
 
If you had read a pre-release article about Thank You, you’d know exactly what to expect from the film. Bobby Deol, said the piece, was unsure of working on it because he only had a vague idea of the film’s story when he reported to shoot.
 
Given Deol’s track-record (pre-Yamla Pagla Deewana) and director Anees Bazmee’s purple patch (No Entry, Welcome, Singh Is Kinng), it’s no surprise the actor agreed to work with the director without having read the script.
 
The article went on to say that Bobby was pacified by co-actor Akshay Kumar who had no clue about the story either. “Akshay said to him with a straight face that ‘jab tumhe story pata chal jaaye, toh mujhe bhi bata dena’ (when you get to hear the script, let me know as well),” Bazmee was quoted. Akshay, Bazmee said, has “blind faith” in the director.
 
Think of the last Akshay Kumar film you saw and chances are the memories will torment you. The above anecdote, so fondly narrated by Bazmee, could have something to do with it.
 
What’s surprising, though, is that UTV Motion Pictures agreed to back this recycle-of-an-already-recycled-film. Making a mindless comedy – that over-abused term to justify wastage of raw stock – might seem like a lucrative idea. We all love ‘escapist’ films, don’t we? May be.
 
But where does Thank You fit in? Somewhere between Singh Is Kinng and No Problem. The good news is: there’s no gorilla farting here. So, yes, No Problem retains its place as the film masochists will continue to recommend to fellow-sadists. Thank You leaves you with a slightly milder headache.
 
What’s the story? You’ve watched Masti? Or even No Entry. Chances are you haven’t seen that David Dhawan classic, Shaadi No 1. The plot doesn’t change. Philandering husbands, regressive wives, busty women, lusty men. You get the drift.
 
Bazmee, after tasting the kind of success his contemporaries can only dream of with three films in a row, seems to have exhausted his resources. Why, otherwise, would he string together sequences which probably never made it to the final edit of No Entry?
 
And why would he not make most of a talent like Irrfan Khan? The actor, fantastic with his comic timing, is probably the one reason you might consider watching Thank You. And Akshay Kumar. After a long time, he seems to be in fine form, not going overboard with his antics and showing sparks of an actor we loved to see do his thing in many comedies in the past decade.
 
But what can a Kumar or a Khan do, when there’s no script. Go through the motions, of course. Question is: do YOU want to?