Happy Birthday Movie Review: Nuttiness can't save this over-cooked surreal crime comedy

Happy Birthday Review: The film is divided into seven chapters, with most of them narrating how each important character ended up doing what they did.

By Arvind V

Updated on Jul 09, 2022 | 01:57 PM IST | 181K

Happy Birthday Movie Review: Nuttiness can't save this over-cooked surreal crime comedy

Title: Happy Birthday
Cast: Lavanya Tripathi and others
Director: Ritesh Rana
Run-Time: 145 Minutes
Rating: 2.5/5

In 'Happy Birthday', a YouTuber wickedly named Mr. C makes a video on how to ride a gearless car. He takes forever to come to the point. So much so, the listener falls asleep by the time he starts the actual message. And the YouTuber delivers the commands like an amateurish trainer when he comes to the point. The scene, much as it is hilarious, is a metaphor for how the film turns out to be.

Defence Minister Rithwik Sodhi (Vennela Kishore) stuns the fictional country he governs when he announces that liberal gun laws will now empower everyone looking for self-defence. Somewhere at Hotel Ritz Grand, a young woman named Happy (Lavanya Tripathi) gets abducted for an unknown reason. A series of twists and uproarious portions involving a professional killer named Max Pain (Satya), a housekeeping employee named Lucky (Naresh Agastya), a suspicious nutty fellow named Uncle Fixit (Gundu Sudarshan), a ganglord named Gunda (Rahul Ramakrishna) and patriotic assassins Serena and William complete the circus.

Director Ritesh Rana delivers an over-cooked comedy that doesn't keep the audience invested in the surreal world his characters inhabit. The occasional smart digs at movies and melodrama do entertain us. However, when the scenes overstay their welcome, when the narration is twisted, or when the goings-on cry for substantial ideas, the film just falls flat.

The film is divided into seven chapters, with most of them narrating how each important character ended up doing what they did. Many elements do make sense and yet they don't come together to make a whole: a greedy old traffic cop, three over-emotional sisters, a sniper who is after a married couple, the Russian angle, a funnily unreal childhood story...

There is a forced party number that thankfully doesn't last long. The satirical tone of the film has a touch of intelligence. For example, an unsophisticated ruralite is barred from entering a pub, a thread that eventually results in a revolt. Vennela Kishore's character has a secret about his personal life. The cuss words are not littered around for want of ideas; they are garnished with creativity. The track between Uncle Fixit and the Union Minister is rib-tickling.

The film's genre, on the other hand, looks either superfluous or half-baked. Hotel Ritz Grand could have been some five-star hotel in Hyderabad. Would it have made any difference? There are as many indiscriminate killings in our crime comedies as there are murders that go unpunished in them.

The technical team proves to be a creative bunch, right from the cinematographer (Suresh Sarangam) and production designer (Narni Srinivas) to music director (Kaala Bhairava). But they are not supported by a couple of lead performances, especially by a Lavanya Tripathi whose performance is unsettling.