Thaindian News

By Joginder Tuteja

PAYING GUESTS has released and turned out to be yet another film that would hardly bring smiles back on the faces of exhibitors, distributors and most importantly audiences. Touted to be a ‘dhamaal’ comedy affair, PAYING GUESTS has turned out to be yet another damp squib in a terrible 2009.

No, PAYING GUESTS isn’t a boring affair. It’s just that it isn’t entertaining enough to make you truly and completely glued to the screen and entice you to recommend it amongst your friends. Even with the presence of a seasoned comedian like Johny Lever, the film isn’t a riot that one expected. From the lead actors, Javed Jaffrey follows Shreyas in bringing in some laughs but Ashish Chaudhary and Vatsal Sheth are barely there.

And less said about the leading ladies, the better. While Celina Jaitley can still take solace from the fact that she has the largest screen presence amongst the lot and plays her mooney eyed girl act well, Sayali Bhagat appears out of place. Riya Sen doesn’t have any role to talk about while one seriously feels bad for Neha Dhupia to have found herself completely under-utilised in her barely three scene act.

So is the movie completely devoid of laughs? No, not exactly and that’s some small mercy on the viewers here. There are a few scenes that do make you roll over with laughter, especially the ones with Shreyas in drag. However, such sequences are far and few and how one wishes that there was more to choose from for the audiences.

To think of it, the film doesn’t even have the kind of subject that really deserved a cinematic outing. What works on stage may not necessarily make for a interesting feature film outing. That’s proven once again in case of PAYING GUESTS which is based on a namesake play.

All said and done, Bollywood would now have to look forward to another Friday for it’s much elusive money spinner. -Sampurn Media