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19 March 2024

Bollywood Review: Arshad Warsi's 'Welcome 2 Karachi' tickles... a little

Go on, watch the trailer, it’s bite-sized and super funny.

Published
By Sneha May Francis

A movie must outdo its trailer. That’s what we hope for, but unfortunately Bollywood lures us into theatres with big promises and never keeps it.
 
‘Welcome 2 Karachi’ slips into that disappointing category.
 
Hoping to piggybank on Hollywood’s much-loved ‘Dumb and Dumber’ madness is Bollywood’s idiotic duo Shammi  and Kedar as they go about cheerfully flaunting their foolishness.
 
While the men evoke a few genuine laughs, their journey from India to Pakistan is unexciting and unfunny.
 
The men on the other side of the border are all wrapped in thick shawls, sport kohl-smeared eyes and are randomly pumping bullets in the air, and at people.
 
The Indians are shuttled from one rocky mountain to another, without reason or purpose.
 
The narrative randomly adopts ‘Argo’ along the way, and throws in dramatic twists and turns that rattle the comedy format.
 
Fortunately, romance is sliced out, but an item dance (still) makes it way.
 
Director Ashish R Mohan and his army of writers aim to tackle the Indo-Pak cross-border terror with humour, but it backfires. They blindly employ buffoonery and reduce their characters to caricatures.
 
Arshad Warsi’s a comic genius and soars above his fractured Shammi. There’s never a misplaced note, as he single-handedly makes even the inane and quirky moments work in ‘Welcome 2 Karachi’.
 
Jackky Bhagnani genuinely tries, but he must realise comedy is not everyone’s cup of tea.
 
Popular dancer Lauren Gottlieb grabs a few minutes of screen time, and remains hidden behind a shawl and sunglasses for the most parts, barring her (random) item gig.
 
Producer Vashu Bhagnani brings in Steven H Bernard to the editing board, and Mark Nutkins for cinematography, but it never adds up.
 
Last year, a small-budget movie ‘Filmistaan’ gave Indo-Pak border politics a clever, comical twist, sadly, ‘Welcome 2 Karachi’ never matches up.
 
Go on, watch the trailer, it’s bite-sized and super funny.