For some reason I found Farah Khan's masala flick Happy New Year to be entertaining though it has a hackneyed plot and has nothing new to offer. May be because I had got too fed up with the so many ordinary movies that have got released in the recent times in Bollywood that Happy New Year, with its grand canvas, beautiful exotic locations and to be fair with the actors, some good acting by the star cast. No doubt the movie is visually appealing but as per me, what made the film likeable was the convincing act put up by the lead pair and the supporting cast as well. It also had some genuine funny moments and some cheeky lines too.
The movie is about Charlie (played by Shah Rukh Khan) who wants to avenge his father's (played by Anupam Kher) death from Charan Grover (Jackie Shroff) because Grover betrayed Charlie's father, which landed him in jail and he committed suicide. Grover runs a safety lockers' business and his company wins the contract to shield an expensive diamond at the Atlantis Hotel in Dubai before it was to be put up for display in an exhibition. The diamonds are locked in a safe which can be opened only Grover’s own son, Vicky (Abhishek Bachchan) with his finger prints. The safe, called Shalimar, was designed by Charlie's father and another colleague, Tammy (played by Boman Irani) whom Charlie recruits. So Charlie wishes to steal that diamond and get Grover arrested in charges of stealing it. Thus his locker business as well as his reputation would get tarnished and he would be finished forever. For the robbery, Charlie forms a group of people (Abhishek Bachchan, Sonu Sood, Boman Irani and Vivaan Shah) who are in some way good enough to help him steal the diamond. Coincidently the day the diamond is going to be arrive at the hotel, a world dance competition too was going to be held. So their plan was to participate in the competition and using that guise of being dancers, then to enter the adjacent room in the hotel and from there to make their way to the vault. But since they all were bad in dancing, so to get selected as the participant, they rope in a bar dancer Mohini (Deepika Padukone) to teach them some dance moves.
Though the movie is predictable and there are some glaring loopholes in the plot too. We always knew that the hero would eventually succeed in making his way to the vault but the journey to stealing the diamonds from the vault could have been more gripping and entertaining. Nevertheless, the acting performances make up for the lapses. Shah Rukh Khan was entertaining like he always is. He had worked really hard on his body to get those rippling muscles and he flaunts them unabashedly, much to our joy. Deepika Padukone too is sincere with her role but she doesn't get to do much other than playing the love interest of Shah Rukh and to sing and dance with him. Abhishek Bachchan is the funniest of the lot and the others too do their part well enough. Visually Happy New Year looks great and there are quite a few minutes when one will find himself chuckling. The music of the movie given by Vishal Shekhar and the songs are quite good. By the time, the movie ended, I was definitely smiling because the movie does make you feel so good. It was definitely a paisa wasool entertainer.
