Sooooooooo tempted to do a snarky “three ring fizzle!” kind of title. But that’s just not me, why beat up a helpless little film when instead I can try to give it a chance to find love? Yes, it’s not the best movie by a long long shot, but it’s harmless and trying.

Whole Plot:

Murali Sharma is a doctor who runs an orphanage and in order to prove a point about nature versus nurture, he secretly swaps a set of twins around so Ranveer 1 and Varun Sharma 1 think they are twins, and Ranveer 2 and Varun Sharma 2 also think they are twins instead of Varun-Varun and Ranveer-Ranveer being brothers. The two sets are raised by a wealthy powerful family in Bangalore, and a humble circus family in Ooty (both of whom decide to name their sons after the orphanage heads, Roy and Joy). Ranveer 1 grows up to be brave and strong and the star of the circus with his act in which he grabs live electric wires and is unharmed, and also happily married to Pooja Hegde. Ranveer 2 grows up to be a bit fussy and cowardly and obsessed with spy thrillers, and dating Jacqueline Fernandez. Ranveer 2 and Varun 2 are sent to Ooty for business, along the way being spotted by an inept team of robbers who want their bag of money, and followed by Jacqueline’s suspicious father Sanjay Mishra. In Ooty, they are constantly mistaken to be Ranveer 1 and Varun 1, culminating in Pooja bringing them home and insisting they stay, making Ranveer 2 think she is possibly the leader of a Gang. Adding to the complications, whenever Ranveer 1 grabs the electrical wires, Ranveer 2 gets a shock. It all culminates when Pooja and Jacqueline confront Ranveer 1 and accuse him of two timing just as he goes on stage, where he is seen by Ranveer 2 and the brothers are united. Murali Sharma shows up to explain everything, all brothers are reunited and all loves, and Ranveer 1 and Pooja Hegde adopt a baby. Oh, and Pooja Hegde turns out to be the author of Ranveer 2’s favorite spy novels.

Does that feel like a whole lot of nothing when I write it out like that? It feels like a whole lot of nothing when I am watching it too. Good comedies, more specifically good Rohit Shetty comedies, are actually ABOUT something. Dilwale is about love and loyalty, Chennai Express is about growing up and facing our fears, the Golmaal films are about family (strange combinations of comic family, but still family). This film is I think supposed to be about how someone can turn out different and same, how nature and nurture are both important. Or more specifically, how Ranveer 1 is mature and fearless thanks to overcoming adversity, and Ranveer 2 is a bit silly and cowardly and dramatic thanks to having an overly easy life. They are both Good Guys in broad strokes, faithful to the women they love, devoted sons, responsible, honest, blah blah blah. But the details are different.

That’s what makes it funny! Someone thinks Ranveer is one way, but we the audience know he is the other, and out of confusion comes humor. It works in spurts, for example when Pooja Hegde is sweetly trying to make up with her husband and Ranveer 2 thinks she is the evil seductress leader of a plot. Or when Jonny Lever threatens Ranveer 1 thinking he is a rich coward and instead is beaten by a tough Cirkus star. The problem is, most of the time there doesn’t seem to be much difference between Ranveer 1 and 2 so it hardly matters which one is in which scene and certainly isn’t funny.

Varun is even worse, Varun 2 is sort of funny in his interactions with Ranveer 2, always overly friendly and trusting while Ranveer 2 is overly suspicious. But Varun 1 has no real personality at all. So much promise here! Make Varun 2 naïve and silly and all that, and then make Varun 1 quick tempered and slow to trust. Make Ranveer 1 always looking for a fight and TOO angry, while Ranveer 2 is always seeing danger. The women are even simpler, they just need any personality at all, anything to make us feel the strangeness when the wrong woman gets the wrong twin.

But nope! All of that is missing!!!! What we are left with is a series of mistaken identities that tend to feel less funny and more tedious, an overly complex backstory (why make this on purpose? Why not just have the orphanage mix up the babies by accident?), and the usual random hodge podge of Rohit Shetty comic interludes.

I’m not gonna say DON’T watch the movie, it has a lot of fun with the setting in the 1960s especially a deep dive into the T-Series music archive. And I’m not mad at it for being weak, it struggled into existence in fits and starts over the pandemic, no doubt affecting everything from Ranveer’s performance to the quality of lighting. Just, it’s not the film it could have been. Oh well.