Huge Opportunity Missed | Akshay Kumar’s Housefull 5 Movie Review

The Problem with Housefull 5 — Critical Analysis 

There are too many issues with Housefull 5. Let’s address or rather discuss the issues one by one. Firstly, the Housefull franchise is known for its comedy. Housefull 5 full movie does not deliver what it stands for. Rather, it is more on the lines of the Masti franchise which is known for adult comedy, double meaning jokes etc. Then comes the dialogues and the meta references. The last film that genuinely made me laugh, as far as I can recall, was Stree 2. Stree 2 is a film that is true to its genre which means it delivered what was expected. The jokes in Housefull 5 aren’t even funny and are rather cringe. There are no efforts in writing an engaging screen-play or writing funny dialogues or one-liners.

Because the screen-play is not that strong, the inconsistency is quite visible as few parts hold your interest while others are skippable. The actors have been too bad with their performances. An actor’s scope is narrowed because every actor depends on the script written by someone else, dialogues written by someone else, story conceived and written by someone else but even then, few actors are just too good to rise above mediocre stuff and hence only Akshay Kumar and Riteish Deshmukh shine despite having mediocre and below par stuff to deliver.

The first half of the film has funny moments while the second half does not have anything funny. There are too many characters and all the characters together set up a cringe-fest that’s loaded with cheap jokes, vulgar lines etc and that is something one would never expect from the Housefull franchise. Yes, if you are seated for a Masti or a Good Newwz then it is somewhat okay but Good Newwz is a solid film and it’ll be a crime to compare it with Housefull 5. 

The film drags in both the halves and it is the second half that spoils the film. The murder mystery angle needs a climax that is solid and convincing but here, the so-called thriller suffers from a poor climax but even that doesn’t matter what matters is that the comedy is flat. Sad to see veteran actors have such narrow scope.

Version A and Version B— Frame to Frame Copy

The biggest drawback is allotting two separate versions namely Housefull 5A and Housefull 5B. Having seen both the versions, let me tell you that both are absolutely the same, frame to frame. During the Housefull 5 trailer launch, makers promoted the film by highlighting the fact that the climax will be different but it turns out to be just a mere character swap while everything, including the climax is just the same. Plus, they’re running offers and are encouraging people to watch the other version if they have watched either of the versions. It’s just a 40 to 50 second character switch while the motive and everything else remains the same. This brought me utter disappointment. The ticket counter or the box office clearly encourages you to watch both versions by highlighting that each version features a different climax and even my industry sources had confirmed this but to my surprise, only one of the two partner killers has been swapped.

Also, this has hampered the collections in India and overseas. How?

A viewer wants to watch Housefull 5 in the opening weekend itself but due to the A and B split, the viewer will rely on feedback from close ones in order to select the best version. By the time the viewer locks a version of his or choice, there is piracy and OTT to change their mind.

The shows got divided. There are many instances where Version A has capacity issues and the peak time shows are allotted to Version B. Now A is losing shows and screens to B but at what cost? If B contributed a major chunk to the box office then it was fine but here B is barely contributing anything and in overseas, version B is a huge disaster. 

The Good Stuff in Housefull 5

While there are mostly negatives, there are some things about Housefull 5 film that are positive. The music is enjoyable right from the beats to the choreography. Laal Pari is a certified chartbuster. Then there are a few moments that are genuinely funny. While few ordinary chunks have been elevated by Akshay Kumar. Also there are fragments where a huge crowd is required for you to enjoy. Stree 2 has much better comedy, in my opinion and the jam packed theatres elevated the whole experience. In the case of Housefull 5, it’s the same thing which means more crowd will deliver a better experience. The film has some thrilling moments that are engaging but again the cinematography and the background score do not make it better. 

Box Office Opening Note 

Housefull 5 box office collection had shown a fair opening of Rs 22 crore nett as per Inside Box Office. The daily box office performance can be viewed here. While the Day 1 is underwhelming for the 5th Instalment of a franchise, it is much better than what Akshay Kumar movies have opened with, recently. The Housefull 5 advance booking report showed a very poor performance for the film’s opening in India. The film opened with $1.48M (Rs 12.41 crore) overseas which is also much bigger than Akshay Kumar’s recent films. This is also his biggest opening day overseas. Hence, overseas collection has helped a lot against the magnum opus like Housefull 5 movie budget. Housefull 3 in terms of gross is slightly bigger but then that film had a big release in Pakistan and it had premiere shows in the Gulf region too. The only issue with the film is that it is an expensive film, if it wasn’t an expensive film, the opening weekend pretty much marked it as a HIT but now we have to monitor the weekday trends. 

Housefull 5 opened with most collections from Rajasthan, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. The Housefull franchise has always had a much longer run due to support from children and families but in case of Housefull 5 it is more like an adult comedy, so monitoring trends is important. This film has pretty much brought back Akshay Kumar to the game of box office and his line up will ensure that he returns to his golden run soon. As far as the overseas market is concerned, the EID holiday allowed the film to earn big money from Gulf, UK etc. but it is having a good opening weekend in Australia and New Zealand too. But, if there was only one version, the opening in India and overseas would have been much bigger.

On the whole, a much better film could’ve been made with a better script and I hope that all the future sequels are genuine sequels and not just cash grabs. 

Stay Tuned to Inside Box Office for future bollywood movie housefull 5 news, box office data and interesting analysis for new movie releases from India. Follow IBO Social Media handles for regular updates.