Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos marks the directorial debut of Indian stand-up comedian Vir Das, along with Kavi Shastri. When the trailer of the movie dropped, this A-certified film’s sensibilities reminded many people of the 2011 movie Delhi Belly, which had Vir Das playing a significant role. When it comes to Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, the plot is pretty silly, and that is deliberate. The ultimate intention of the movie is to deliver a spoof that holds a hilarious conversation with the audience about certain cliches that we have been seeing in Hindi cinema for a while now. I am not saying Happy Patel is doing anything out of the box in terms of filmmaking. However, this gag-rich satire has some really hilarious moments, which somewhat reminded me of the experience of watching movies like Delhi Belly and Go Goa Gone.
Happy, our central character, has two dads of UK origin, and they haven’t told him about his Indian origins. Since both Dads were star agents in MI7, Happy also wanted to be an agent, but he failed every single time. What we see here is an instance in which MI7 is forced to use Happy for an extraction mission in India, and how that goes.
Vir Das is an established comedian, and the reason why most of his shows are massive successes is that he knows how to break certain clichés, he knows how to package political jokes, and he also knows how to crack self-deprecating humor. In the writing of Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, Vir and Amogh Randive are actually applying some of the stand-up comedy traits to grab the audience’s attention. The good thing about the movie’s making was that it was able to establish the zone of logic very quickly for the viewers. The moment a housemaid pauses a standoff, you get the tone of the humor, and after that, Vir Das bombards the film with witty lines. The film manages to make us focus on the gags rather than the story.
When movies like the Housefuls and Mastis happen, there is always a defence from the people who write those movies, saying, ” Don’t take it so seriously. I think Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos has some of the best silly, funny jokes to come from Bollywood in recent times. The kind we have enjoyed in Andaz Apna Apna or Go Goa Gone, for that matter. One of the aims of the movie that helps them to create humor is the effort to break certain stereotypes. In some places, they are literally addressing cliches through radio voice-overs, and in this movie, the fight between the good guy and bad girl is decided through cooking. The making is actually applying this over-improvisation technique to make things funny. It is a method that often exhausts you, but I was able to enjoy it in this movie, especially in the second half.
Vir Das, who plays the title character, carries that fake accent really well, and it will make you laugh out loud for all the wrong pronunciations. Mithila Palkar as the spoofy version of Katrina Kaif, who can’t dance, was fun to watch. Sharib Hashmi as Geet is giving solid support to Vir in pulling off the gag fun along with Srushti Tawade. Mona Singh, as the main antagonist, gets to play a fun character that she may have never imagined playing. Aamir Khan’s cameo was funny, while Imran Khan’s was mostly done to create a Delhi Belly moment for that movie’s fans.
Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos is not necessarily a novel idea. We have seen films like Johnny English that effectively mocked the Bond movies for their predictable patterns. Vir Das and Kavi Shastri are trying to crack that zone, and in terms of transporting the spoof by incorporating elements that are relatable and hilarious to the audience here, I feel they have done a great job. If you are a fan of movies like Go Goa Gone and Delhi Belly, and have missed that kind of fun on screen for a really long time, I feel Happy Patel can quench your thirst to an extent with its self-aware humor.
