If you've seen the promos for "Desi Boyz," then you know exactly what to expect: eye candy and comedy with a desi heart. On that and on plot, the face-paced film certainly delivers right up until the climax begins to unravel.
It's 2009, and friends Nick Mathur (John Abraham) and Jerry Patel (Akshay Kumar) are living in the ultimate bachelor pad in London. But then recession strikes and Nick loses his job as an investment banker and college dropout Jerry goes from flitting from job to job to having none. But Nick is trying to fund a wedding to his beautiful fiancée, Radhika (Deepika Padukone), and Jerry has to keep a job to keep custody of his young nephew. So the two down-on-their-luck men decide to become male escorts — but mostly dancers for bachelorette parties — for the agency Desi Boyz, transforming into the personas of Rocco and Hunter until the high-paying but morally low scheme blows up in their faces.
As a film about escorts, the film is certainly about eye candy, just like the promos promised. There's plenty of shirtless scenes where it's obvious we're to appreciate the Desi Boyz as much as the women who call them. But true to Bollywood form, there's lots of eye candy, but still no nudity and no sex (going into the escort debacle, Nick and Jerry make a "no sex" promise).
But beyond the eye candy, the film is chock full of laughs at every turn. Akshay Kumar and John Abraham have both mastered comic timing and the art of bromance.
But the film doesn't rely wholly on its comedy either. Just as the boys themselves promise, the fact that it's Bollywood means it has heart. When the escort business blows up in Nick and Jerry's faces at intermission, the two are left without a friend in the world, including each other. Nick desperately tries to win back his fiancée, Radhika, and Jerry decides to go back to college after losing custody of his nephew.
Though the arc of Jerry in college is slightly nonsensical, it adds its own laughs and sizzle when Jerry finds out his former classmate Tanya is now his economics professor. And the gorgeous Chitrangada Singh, who has three times the sizzle of Deepika Padukone with half the screen time, does as much for the film's eye-candy quality as the boys did earlier but with more clothes. But as a professor, Tanya's relationship with Jerry, her student, is uncomfortable, especially when it resorts to a strip-tutoring session (though, rest assured: still no nudity happens).
Meanwhile, Nick is camping out in front of Radhika's house to win her back, with the support of her father, Suresh (Anupam Kher). Anupam Kher is almost always in the background when you see him in a film (probably something to do with his incredible amount of films), but he has a great presence in this film. As Nick's hopeful father-in-law, Kher plays out a great bromance with John Abraham — probably almost as great as the bromance between Abraham and Kumar.
However, towards the film's end, things begin to unravel. The comedy with emotion — see: Radhika and Nick's broken and mending relationship and Jerry's determination to finish college — becomes overly dramatic in a courtroom scene where Jerry is battling to regain custody of his nephew.
The scene drags out, mostly loses humor and lacks conviction as a climax to the film.
But if you can forgive the sins of a lackluster ending, "Desi Boyz" is a face-paced bucket of laughs that's easy on the eyes and offers a taste of emotion on the side.
"Desi Boyz" is now playing at the Regal Gainesville Cinema Stadium 14 in Butler Plaza.
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Posts in The Filmi Gator appear on Mondays.
