536. Mubarakan; movie review

MUBARAKAN
Cert 12A
153 mins

BBFC advice: Contains drug references

Do Indian cinema audiences really have such an insatiable appetite for comedies about arranged marriages?
It astonishes me that so many films go down the same road but still do well at the box office.
Anees Bazmee's movie has been one of the most successful Bollywood films in the UK box in 2017 but doesn't offer much that I haven't seen before.
It is built on farce with misunderstanding piled on misunderstanding as twin brothers try to engineer weddings with their first loves rather than strangers.
Mubarakan stars Arjun Kapoor in dual roles as the brothers who were separated at birth after their parents died in a car crash.
More than 20 years later they have very different personalities - partly due to their varied upbringings.

Karan has been nurtured in the UK and is lively and impetuous, whereas Charan is more thoughtful, bordering on indecisive, having lived in the Punjab.
Their respective adoptive parents want to secure their nuptials but both men are in long-term clandestine relationships.
Anyone with a passing interest in Indian cinema will already see the possibilities for farce and, sure enough, that us exactly what follows.
Ileana D'Cruz, Athiya Shetty and Neha Sharma play the love interests who turn the heads and castigate the twins in equal measure.
Meanwhile, Anil Kapoor is the matchmaking uncle trying to act as peacemaker between his brother (Pavan Malhotra) and sister (Ratna Pathak Shah).
Inevitably the older generation are largely seen as overbearing, ambitious and sulky while the younger men are loafers and the intelligence lies with the young women.
If I had £20 for every time I have seen these stereotypes in Indian films, I could pay for a flight to Delhi.
And then misunderstandings spark rows, madcap schemes to right wrongs go pear-shaped and... well, you know how it finishes.
I don't understand why Mubarakan has done better at the UK box office than most Bollywood films this year - frankly, it doesn't stand out in any way at all.
Indeed, I doubt I will remember it by the first week of 2018.

Reason to watch: bright and bubbly farce
Reasons to avoid: goes over the same old ground 

Laughs: a couple of chuckles
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 5/10

Star tweet
Anil Kapoor - It’s been a great year and this award is like the cherry on top of the cake! I guess I got my early birthday present! Thank you #ZeeCineAwards2018 & to everyone who loved #Mubarakan & #Kartar!

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