Santa Banta Pvt Ltd

Capitalising on the iconic Sikh characters that caustic columnist and writer Khushwant Singh celebrated in his joke books, this is a cinematic blot that debunks that famous detergent slogan 'daag ache hain'.

Statutory warning : If you watch this film, the joke is on you.

Recovering from the mind-numbing assault of Kyaa Kool Hain Hum 3 and Mastizaade was hard enough, now audiences have to deal with yet another deadly blow in Santa Banta.

Even if you have nothing else to do this weekend, do yourself a favour and avoid Santa Banta Pvt Ltd. Go fall off a cliff or cross the highway blind folded for thrills. Even those experiences will be a lot less painful than watching two sardars look for their underwear sash and argue over the value of an old metal pot. This movie is an exercise in banality. If you're smart, you'd keep a safe distance.

It's the sort of light-hearted nonsense that should have filled the film. There's simply not enough of it. Every 20 minutes or so, there is one really good, enjoyably silly joke (which proves the writers' potential for this genre) and then – yawn, yawn, yawn – it is back to the dull grind. Considering that the film runs for about 113 minutes, that adds up to a total of approximately six jokes. Why?

Threatened by protests and petitions by the Sikh community, Santa Banta Pvt Ltd comes with a huge disclaimer that its turbaned characters are fictitious and bear no resemblance to anyone real. That seems entirely superflous. It's hard to imagine anybody in real life as dim-witted as Santa (Boman Irani) and Banta (Vir Das).