Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos review: Vir Das shines in this engaging brain rot comedy!

Happy Patel’s ensemble cast and its meta humour will make you leave the theatre with a smile on your face. 

Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos review: Ever since The Ba***ds of Bollywood went viral for its Farah Khan level brain rot humour, us as an audience have realised what we’ve been missing out on since years. In an era of thrillers and badly done patriotic films, we forgot to take things lightly for a minute and that’s exactly what makers like Aryan Khan and Vir Das are here to remind us. Just like in The Ba***ds of Bollywood, a lot of things in Happy Patel would not make sense in the real world. The plotline keeps getting wackier by the minute and you cannot help but look forward to seeing how it all unfolds!

The film is centered in Goa and starts with Jimmy Mario(Aamir Khan), a local don of Panjor trying to murder two British men. The househelp of the Britishers aka Sakhubai Patel(Sumukhi Suresh) gets caught in the cross fire and so does Jimmy himself. After both sides lose someone meaningful to them, the Britishers are left with Sakhubai’s son, Happy, who they decide to raise in London. And Jimmy’s legacy as a gangster is carried forward by Mama (Mona Singh), Jimmy’s only daughter. Years later, she owns a company which is a ‘business meets crime’ kind of a set up. She wants to end India’s obsession with giving into the British propaganda of fair skin that they sell us through fairness creams, by making her own version of it. Meanwhile in London, Happy Patel (Vir Das) is raised by his British dads, and he only learns of his Indian roots when he is sent on a spy mission by MI7 to rescue one of the British dermatologists working for Mama. 

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After a hilarious and spoof-like introduction about India, Happy is sent to Goa to make sure the mission is successful. That's where he meets Rupa(Mithila Palkar), a dancer who does everything right except dancing. And Geet(Sharib Hashmi), a Sikh colleague who helps him out with his mission. The movie heavily banks on nostalgia and shows how Happy learns from the greats of Bollywood while building a world of his own. From Shah Rukh Khan’s iconic pose sold to Happy as India’s mating call, borrowing every Bollywood dance step that’s engraved in our minds to a satisfying climax, Happy Patel is a story that’s one of a kind. 

Vir Das as Happy Patel is delightful. He is oblivious to half the things around him and yet, in his own way, he finds his ground and puts a smile on your face for most of the film. His British accent slowly grows on you as the film progresses. Mona Singh is cold-blooded and ruthless as Mama, the villain. Maybe, the reason why The Ba***ds of Bollywood and Happy Patel work is because she is a part of them both! But the highlight for me as an early 2000s kid was to see Imran Khan back on screen after more than a decade. Even though his role is merely a cameo in the film, Das couldn’t have given him a better comeback than this! He maintained a balance between the Imraan we knew and the one he envisions for himself in the future!

Happy Patel’s subtitles have a journey of their own throughout the film. His Hindi mispronunciations become the reason why you would chuckle while watching this film and the subtitles do justice to that! While a huge part of Happy Patel is a mix of Hindi, English or Hinglish, it is still inclusive of so many aspects about India without shoving it in your face. It portrays what it truly means to be an Indian and maybe this is the kind of film that shows the rest of the world what we’re truly capable of as filmmakers! 

Happy Patel is currently playing at a theatre near you!

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