In what new direction can one take the spy comedy genre — a genre that has so many entries, from different countries, that it now seems an impossible — or near-impossible — task to pull off one? Vir Das shows, with his directorial debut, that the genre still remains a fertile ground for never-before-seen gags. There is a lot to laugh at in Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, but being a movie that relies on cringe comedy, there are many instances that land and some that don't. But when it works, it really works.
It would be difficult to come up with comparison points for Happy Patel because, while featuring some familiar elements, it has a singular identity. It's not exactly Borat, but it's not Johnny English either. Because Vir Das is Vir Das, not Sacha Baron Cohen or Rowan Atkinson. He is basically playing an Indian guy from Britain who has to pretend to be an "Indian" in Goa to pull off a rescue operation. It throws a lot of awkward humour jokes at you with admirable daring, perhaps with the hope that at least some of them would hit the spot. And they do indeed, at times.
But the ones I loved most involve wordplay and mannerism-based. Vir Das's 'Happy' is an aspiring spy who failed the MI7 exam "seven times". He also happens to be a straight man with slightly effeminate traits, perhaps because he was brought up by two gay men. Speaking of, gay jokes are aplenty in this movie, but they never verge on homophobic. Of course, some of them are unfunny simply because they are bland, not because they are offensive. And, yes, it doesn't shy away from fart and puke jokes either. Again, not all of it works.
One of the areas where it scores highly is the manner in which it mines jokes out of Das's British accent-tinted Hindi diction. It's even funnier when they show the exact words and lines as "English" subtitles rather than showing their meanings. It goes without saying that a translation is essential to realise how some of the most common Hindi words can be slightly tweaked to mean something else while fitting comfortably with the ideas that Das and his team have in mind. The one where chidiya is replaced with ch***ya, for example.
Its self-aware/meta nature also provides enough opportunities for laugh-out-loud humour. It's not scared to have some of its character inform you that "the movie you're about to see will be in Hindi" when Das is sent from UK to India to spy on a female Goan don who is still seeking vengeance for the death of her father (you'll be shocked to know who plays him!) at the hands of Happy's dad...s.
There's also time for some sweet-cute romance between Happy and Mithila Palkar's character Rupa. There's a dance sequence that earns points for its innovative choreography, built around a joke about a woman slapping a man. And it helps that both Das and Palkar have an innate charm and endearing quality that automatically render them a lovely pair. And Imran Khan gets a cameo appearance in a hilarious fight sequence where Das lets the former get all the attention. In short, Happy Patel is a good (if not great) time at the movies, if you gel with comedies like The Party (with Peter Sellers), The Naked Gun, and, of course, anything from Rush Hour to Delhi Belly to the Seth Rogen brand of humour.
Film: Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos
Director: Vir Das, Kavi Shastri
Cast: Vir Das, Mithila Palkar, Sharib Hashmi, Mona Singh
Rating: 3/5
