Film:	Do Knot Disturb
Directed By:	David Dhawan
Screenplay:	Yunus Sejawal
Cinematography:	Vijay Arora
Music:	Nadeem - Shravan
Sound:	Leslie Fernandes
Lyrics:	Sameer
Cast:	Govinda, Sushmita Sen, Ritesh Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Ranvir Shorey, Manoj Pahwa, Sohail Khan, Rajpal Yadav, Himani Shivpuri, Rituparna Sengupta

 

 

Knock Knock

Who’s there?

David Dhawan

David who?

David ha!  

Set in Cleavageland, where male hands frequently head for the crotch, or make strange/ crude/ cheap gestures indicating mating, this film is always honest about the kind of film it aspires to be. It is the kind which tells the audience what to expect right from the title sequence to beginning with shots of a red helicopter descending in the lawns of a sprawling bungalow. The happy producer must have clapped his hands in delight – my budget shows! Where are we located? Can anyone seriously ask this or any kind of remotely logical question? Okay, comedy and logic don’t make perfect partners, David Dhawan and Govinda do and have given us enough loud, vulgar, whacky and immensely successful (at the box office) comedies in the past. This one aspires to replicate that success and succeeds to some degree. But alas, Govinda looks too old, Sushmita Sen looks horrible in her bloated avatar, Lara Dutta never looked worse and the film over all simply isn’t easy on the eyes. Or ears. Or brains… but hello, you were supposed to leave them behind in any case! As people start slapping each other around randomly in the film, you wish you could slap someone somewhere… Ah, well…  

Govinda is a man who has been given an ultimatum by girlfriend Lara Dutta to choose between her and wife Sushmita Sen. In the girlfriend’s words – much repeated in promos and obviously considered a brilliant bit of dialogue – he has to choose between living in a flat or living in a bungalow. The reference to Ms. Sen’s ample figure is obvious and while Govinda does prefer the svelte Ms. Dutta, the advantages of the bungalow are there for all to see. Endless wealth to squander, a huge double bed, and a business empire where he can play at being a boss. A sacked servant, Rajpal Yadav, clicks Govinda with girlfriend, and gives the photo to Sushmita. All hell doesn’t break loose as Ritesh has drifted into the photo and Govinda tells the wife that Lara is Ritesh’s girlfriend. He now has to spend a fortune in convincing Ritesh to pretend to be Lara’s boyfriend. Suspicious Sen hires a dumb detective –Ranvir Shorey – to spy on hubby. Dumb detective does dumb things to get laughs, Govinda and friend Manoj Pahwa also try very hard to make you laugh with dialogues like Pahwa advising Govinda that he shouldn’t have attached someone else’s DVD player to his own TV set.   

Ritesh has an ailing Mom in a hospital for whose sake he’s having this ball with Lara. Of course when her (Lara’s, not Mom’s) ex-beau who is aspiring to be present-beau (Sohail Khan) lands up, Ritesh pretends to be Pappu Plumber as he’s conveniently holding a pipe in his hand at that moment. Yes, the film is like that only. Things just happen and they are allowed to, without much connection to what has happened before or will happen after. The heroines do what they can – show lots of leg and cleavage, act dumb and dance. In all fairness, I must add that the men act dumb too and dance as well. But they do not show leg and cleavage even though Govinda’s tight t-shirt in one scene indicates he could have tried.   

There are a few moments that do cause some amount of mirth in the first half but the second half, largely set in a five star hotel, becomes increasingly silly and pointless. Gags are repeated as if their brilliance would be wasted without such multiplication. Too many songs sounds a lame complaint but are not easy to sit through and one thought does strike – why are two rich, hep and successful women so crazy about a two-timing man like Govinda?    

No, these are not knotty tales or naughty tales that can be fun to watch. Just the usual puerile stuff that you do knot need to disturb yourself to watch.  

Rating: One and a half stars out of five

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