This is a film that has no saving graces at all: not worth wasting time or money on, even if you happen to be a diehard Boman Irani fan.

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).

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

There’s a reason this review is this short. This is strictly avoidable fare!

For what is touted as a comedy movie, this one is outrageously unfunny. In fact, I don’t remember a single second when I even as much as half smiled through this painful ordeal.

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?

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’.

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.

The comic world of Santa Banta Pvt Ltd is suffused in an exasperating chaos. You want to be amused. You wait for punchlines. There is not one gag here that would evoke even a mild laughter in the audience. But if you appreciate some very accomplished comic actors trying to make sense of a plot that couldn’t have made sense even to those who wrote it, this is your film.

Santa Banta is a complete waste of time. Unless you want to go to a theater and fall asleep, avoid this one!

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.

To call it slapstick would be an insult to the audience’s sensibilities because the jokes are stale and the situations humourless.
The real outrage here is how can someone make a story with Santa-Banta, the epitome of two-liners, such a lacklustre affair?