Two's a crowd. Three's a company. Four's a party. But five, as Nayee Padosan proves, is certainly a d-r-a-g. Except if you find lines like "Ayyoji, tumako itana gusso kaiku aaataji, ayyo raamaa" very funny. Or if you find a mad house of four desperate single guys, a highly accented Tamilian couple and a smart-talking Smart Alec entertaining.
Nayee Padosan is like a joke, with a botched up punchline. The kind that long after the punchline we ask, "Oh okay, and then?" With one extra-slim starlet and four hunky dudes, it's eye candy all the way, but how different is that from Baywatch Hawaii?
Except for the word Padosan and the Tamilian as the butt of jokes, this one has nothing common to the old LOL blockbuster Padosan. Of course, the fact there are no double entendres is a big favor, and certainly wins this one its average rating.
When gorgeous Pooja enters in tow with her Kanchipuram Iyengar family, there's flutter in Raju's (Anuj) dil. He thinks he can win her heart by carrying subzi and cooking dal for her family. This is the case of Nut # 1. Next is the story of a wannabe rockstar who tries to learn Carnatic music from Poo's Dad so he can be close to her. Then there is another random character that believes his astrologer that Pooja is the one who can bag him the role of a hero.
Even as the three nuts try to woo Pooja in their ingenuous ways, Prabhakar Shastry (Rahul Bhatt), a musician-rolled-in-a-cook-wrapped-in-a-kickboxer, almost gets hitched to her. After a wee little twist in the end, the best looking guy gets the girl.
While the promos tried to make the movie look like a hot girl and four perverts, the men in the movie are actually dull and stupid. In fact, just the kind of neighbors a girl may want to have, both for entertainment and for their valuable services.
Thankfully, the entire debut team puts up a neat show. Mehek is certainly the kind who will bag several offers after this one. She's dusky, and going by the audience's reactions, happening too. Among the guys, Anuj, the model in the Nokia 'silly point' ad, looks good and does well. Aslam and Vikas have a good timing even in this stale comedy.
AShankar-Ehshaan-Loy's music is average. The only song that's slightly more sane than the rest is already exhausted in the promos. So that leaves us with nothing to expect from the music.
Director Tharun Kumar could have done far better if he didn't pick on the Tamilian bone or if he had religiously kept away from clichéd scenes. If only he could practice the one-liner that says, "If at first you don't succeed, destroy all the evidence." Tch, the evidence is already out there in the cinemas.
Love Thy Neighbour says Nayee Padosan. Now remember the other commandments too: Thou shalt not display thy rockbottom sense of humor laughing at braindead gags. Thou shalt not get carried away by promos. Thou shalt believe when fullhyd says Nayee Padosan is just two stars!