Welcome - Movie Review

Published: September 5, 2009

By JENNIFER HOPFINGER

Starring Akshay Kumar, Katrina Kaif, Paresh Rawal, Nana Patekar, Anil Kapoor, Feroz Khan, Mallika Sherawat

What could be a more entertaining way to bring lovers together—and pull them apart—than through an elaborate comedy of errors? Dr. Ghungroo (played by Paresh Rawal) wants to make sure his nephew Rajiv (Akshay Kumar) marries into a decent family—and he’s rejected countless candidates who’ve failed to meet his strict standards. Uday (Nana Patekar) also wants respectable in-laws, but he’s having a hard time finding anyone willing to accept his half-sister Sanjana (Katrina Kaif) because he’s the leader of the mob in Dubai. Uday’s brother Majnu (Anil Kapoor) extorts Ghungroo for money—and the hilarious misunderstandings begin there. Because of all the mix-ups, Ghungroo betroths Rajiv to Sanjana not once but twice—much to his horror when he realizes what he’s done.

Naturally, Rajiv falls for Sanjana at first sight (when she rescues him from a burning building he accidentally sets on fire), without realizing who she is. Rajiv is a kind, simple man who works as an art auctioneer, but we don’t learn much about Sanjana, other than she’s sweet and pretty (as is the case in so many of her films, Kaif’s moderate talent is underutilized).

Desperate to dissolve his nephew’s alliance with a mob family, Ghungroo has an imposter, Isha (Mallika Sherawat), show up at the engagement party, claiming to be Rajiv’s fiancé since childhood. The charade works and the marriage is called off. Even though he learns Rajiv and Sanjana are in love, Ghungroo refuses to give his blessing to their union as long as her brother is involved in crime.

Rajiv won’t marry Sanjana without his uncle’s permission, so his only option is to reform his future in-laws, and he comes up with an elaborate farce of his own to do it. To distract Uday from his nefarious dealings, Rajiv convinces him to pursue his lifelong dream of becoming a Bollywood actor and he gets him a part in a movie. Majnu, too, is an artist at heart—a painter—and he starts to reconsider his life as well. But given the gun-wielding maniacs Rajiv’s dealing with—and the appearance of yet another complicating factor in the form of Uday’s boss, RDX (played by the late, great Feroz Khan), who wants to keep Uday and Majnu in the criminal fold—the gambit slips out of Rajiv’s control, and it takes heroics, not jokes, to save the day. Rawal, Patekar, and Kapoor are at their comedic best, but with Kumar playing the straight man, some of the magic is missing.

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