In the end the film is the same old comedy of errors that we’ve seen so many times before. Anil Kapoor is the secret sauce of Mubarakan whose incredible timing uplifts many a dull patch. But the film is unmistakably indulgent and over-long and could’ve done with some serious pruning. Right now it works only in fits and starts. You’ll laugh, but not throughout. Let’s just say it falls somewhere in the middle on a scale of Ready to No Entry.

Post-interval, the film’s funny bone gets lost. It becomes a long, maudlin harangue on family values and good sisters and brothers, while slipping in a few distasteful jokes about wives and women.

Mubarakan is designed as a family film where comedy is generated through quarrelling relatives. This works initially but goes out of control later.

in trying to squeeze every ounce of hilarity out of its scrappy screenplay, the film goes overboard with its excessive cheeriness and swerves into the realms of inanity. In the bargain, it loses its way completely after delivering a fairly breezy first half.

Less tone-deaf humour, more quirks, a shorter running time and a more able younger cast and Mubarakan could have been more delightful.

The film leaves you feeling good and happy. An enjoyable weekend watch with kids.

This one is completely avoidable unless, of course, you just want to saunter into the theatre to enjoy 156 minutes of air-conditioning during the oppressive Indian summers.

Fortunately, the humour does not degenerate to crass double entendres. Family entertainment is clearly at the core and Mubarakan manages to deliver enough laughs.

Relatively more coherent. Still doesn’t make it any more enjoyable. Madcap story but no laughs. Thankfully not too slapsticky, but all the drama is a downer.

Unlike many Bazmee films, this one’s low on slapstick and heavy on sappy emotion. It’s almost like Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…meets No Entry. And while this blend lends the film substance, being uncharacteristic of the maker’s style makes one feel like a victim of false advertising.

The only people to emerge from this wreckage with respect are the assistant directors. They ensure continuity and their attention to detail is the only thing that prevents this movie from being a full-blown disaster. If the makers of Mubarakan were trying to appeal to Punjabis, it’s worth asking if this one would’ve been a good movie in Punjabi. The answer, alas, would be categorical.

f you look for progressive thought in the film such as how families still dominate their children’s choice of a partner, how religion and prejudices in parent’s generation are imposed on their kids’ choices in a partner, then you are barking up the wrong tree. But if you brush that aside and judge it purely as a comedy, you‘ll laugh at izzat ka falooda …