'Naughty @ 40' is torture all the way

 

Waiting outside a popular multiplex that still carries an old-world single-screen charm to watch a Govinda film took us back a decade or so. Once seated in the theatre, the whistles and the excitement convinced us that we were in for a joyride.

 

How mistaken were we! In the old-world charm, the film too is a relic that would fit into the late 1980s or early 1990s, where absolutely childish plots and silly, schoolboy jokes passed for hilarity. In today’s day and age, Naughty @ 40 seems tacky, vulgar, and absolutely unbearable.

 

Happy (Govinda) is, as the title suggests, 40 and unmarried. The dude, who is a brahmachari otherwise, has a peculiar sleep-walking disorder. He senses the scent of a woman and follows her in his sleep. Yawn.

 

Happy’s mother (Jaykar) is devoted to God and begins each sentence with ‘Radhe Radhe’ while his father (Kher) is a wannabe modern ‘papa’ who is insulted to know that his 40-year-old son is a virgin.

 

Happy’s cousin, played by Harish (remember him from Aunty No 1? Only, he is far more irritating here) and his father’s employee Sharafat (Shakti Kapoor in his tharkee element) decide to help the overweight, childlike 40-year-old get laid.

 

A transvestite, a masseuse and a lawsuit follow before Happy’s parents decide to visit his Mama (Mishra) in Himachal Pradesh to find a sundar, sushil ladki for Happy. A pandit, a quirky uncle and a dramatic rejection (Papa, papa mujhe aise ladke se shaadi nahi karnee! Really?) follow and Happy is still a virgin.

 

Enter Gauri (Chaudhary), a grown woman with a child brain. She ends up being Happy’s dulhan but does he get to get ‘happy’? That’s the premise of the film. And it takes the director the entire first half to establish this ‘will he? Won’t he?’ hoopla. Mweh.
There is nothing to write home about the film, its story or its music.

 

Chaudhary fits into a dimwit’s role so perfectly that we suspect she’s only being herself. Govinda, who lost 8 kilos for this role, is more flabby than naughty. There are songs like ‘Thoda hum adjust karein, thoda tum adjust karo, soch samajh ke invest karo’ where the usually sari-clad Chaudhary dons tacky short skirts and mini-dresses.

 

All in all, there is absolutely nothing that this film holds for you. Unless you are a masochist like yours truly!