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Join UsStar Cast: Boman Irani, Vir Das, Johnny Lever, Lisa Haydon, Neha Dhupia, Vijay Raaz, Sanjay Mishra
Director: Akashdeep
What’s Good: Actually nothing!
What’s Bad: Where do we start? Ever been to a theater for a comedy and not laughed a single time? Yeah!
Loo Break: Best if you manage to take lots of them!
Watch or Not?: Spare yourselves from this film! If you go by the name Santa-Banta, let me tell you even the SMS jokes are way better! This is a yawn-fest.
User Rating:
The film revolves around the two lead characters who are best friends Santeshwar Singh aka Santa (Boman Irani) and Banteshwar Singh aka Banta (Vir Das). The good for nothing souls are soon misunderstood to be RAW secret agents and sent to Fiji for a secret mission.
Their mission is to rescue the High Commissioner, Shankar (Ayyub Khan) who has been kidnapped.
When RAW officer Arvind (Vijay Raaz) fails to find actual agents who used the name Santa Banta, he sends the fake ones.
After reaching Fiji, Santa and Banta meet Shankar’s wife Kareena Roy (Neha Dhupia) and Shankar’s best friend Sonu Sultan (Ram Kapoor) for their so-called investigation.
They are working in co-ordination with Fiji’s RAW agents Cutie (Lisa Haydon) and Akbar Illahabaadi (Sanjay Mishra).
In the mean time, there is also a Nepal’s No. 1 Don (Johnny Lever) who wants to hunts them.
Imagine all these characters pushed into an unfunny plot.
Santa Banta Pvt Ltd Review: Script Analysis
The problem with this film is the fact that it is named after Santa Banta. However silly the jokes that we have heard from ages about these two fictional characters are, they have been somewhat funny. Unfortunately, with regards to this film, it seems more like the makers wanted us to hate them altogether.
The script in place is extremely poor and irritatingly unfunny. With a series of characters introduced in the plot, the writers resort to cliched references to make them comic. There is absolutely nothing funny about a Nepali don getting calls saying ‘Bahadur, gate bandh kar’.
Also what is expected to make us laugh is third grade things such as Santa-Banta forgetting Sonu Sultan’s name every-time they meet and so they come up with Sonu Nigam, Tipu Sultan, Razia Sultan and so on.
There is absolutely no difference between the first and the second half, both manage to invoke the same level of irritation.
Most of the antics in the film fall flat and even having seasoned actors work on it doesn’t help.
Santa Banta Pvt Ltd Review: Star Performance
The main protagonists, Boman Irani and Vir Das individually try best to save this film but as the duo Santa Banta, they do not share a great camaraderie.
Rest of the cast including veteran actors such as Sanjay Mishra, Johnny Lever and Vijay Raaz are completely wasted in a limp plot.
Lisa Haydon and Neha Dhupia hardly have any acting to do in this film but provide the glam quotient to it.
Santa Banta Pvt Ltd Review: Direction, Music
Director Akashdeep gives us all the reasons to run out of the theaters in this film or least of all hit the snooze button. The film’s plot being a yawn-fest, the execution is even more tepid.
The film takes off with a weird animation of the two characters, Santa and Banta and even in the film, this animation keeps surfacing up. It is poorly crafted and you completely miss the point as to why it has been forced into the film.
Also since the film may have been made a few years earlier and has been released now, it consists of a scene which is supposed to be a joke on Dr. Manmohan Singh, India’s former Prime Minister. It is a shame that whilst releasing it now, the makers do not even feel the need to edit it since that era is long gone for us now and also that the jokes on the PM died way back.
Even a place like Fiji can look quite ordinary in this film, so don’t expect any picturesque cinematography.
The music is unbelievably boring and mostly put at regular intervals so that the audiences don’t doze off!
Santa Banta Pvt Ltd Review: The Last Word
Santa Banta is a complete waste of time. Unless you want to go to a theater and fall asleep, avoid this one! I am going with a 1/5.
Santa Banta Pvt Ltd Trailer
Santa Banta Pvt Ltd releases on 22nd April, 2016.
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