Leave your good taste at the door for Desi Boyz

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      Directed by Rohit Dhawan. Starring Akshay Kumar, John Abraham, Deepika Padukone, and Chitrangda Singh. In Hindi with English subtitles. Rated PG.

      In Rohit Dhawan’s first film, Desi Boyz, he follows in his father David’s directorial footsteps by creating an extended sophomoric male fantasy that is predicated on the audience suspending their logic, judgment, and good taste.

      The film is set in some imagined projection of London where Hindi and English can be used interchangeably and which bears no relation to the actual experience of the South Asian diaspora in the U.K. Jerry (Akshay Kumar) is a college dropout and mall cop whose lifestyle is dependent on the earnings of his friend and roommate, Nick (John Abraham). Things change rapidly when the recession hits and Nick loses his job as a financial analyst the same day that Jerry gets fired.

      The pressure is on as Nick fears losing his high-maintenance fiancée, Radhika (Deepika Padukone), and Jerry’s custody of his orphaned nephew is threatened by social services. They turn to the lucrative escort business and are pimped out by the owner of the Desi Boyz agency (Sanjay Dutt).

      They take to their new jobs like pros, and this provides the premise for extended sequences where the boys dance to a series of awful songs surrounded by scores of white women who stare into the camera with vacant eyes. These scenes are interchanged with ones where the male leads walk in slow motion toward the camera, often without shirt, so that we can admire their upper-body musculature and the apelike expressions on their faces.

      Although Akshay Kumar hits the same notes as he does in every film, this role is beneath the talents of John Abraham, whose work in films like New York reveal his potential. This might have worked if the film had more heart. As it is, it is just sad.

      Comments

      6 Comments

      #1 fan of this film critic

      Nov 26, 2011 at 9:02pm

      The best thing about this film is that, once again, it has allowed us the pleasure of Itrath Syed's pontifications. Thanks to the Georgia Straight even absolute mediocrity on the silver screen can give rise to literary delight in print.

      mehjlikesdaal

      Nov 26, 2011 at 11:22pm

      ha ha ha ... i love yer thoughts Itrath. oh me oh my.

      another #1 fan

      Nov 26, 2011 at 11:41pm

      ha ha ha. laffing so heartily. thank you. oh if only bollywood could get a brain.

      Leo Ve

      Nov 27, 2011 at 12:22am

      The film is funny. And at least not as tasteless, boring and sad as you critic...

      miguel

      Nov 27, 2011 at 10:51am

      Sounds the same as Hollywood product. That's a shame.
      Miguel

      kumar

      Nov 27, 2011 at 1:56pm

      High maintenance fiancee, sounds pretty close to the truth. Keep em bare foot and pregnant with a grade nine education.