Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos review: More chaos than comedy? Vir Das’s spy parody is a messy fever dream

It’s all there, but not quite. Vir Das, known primarily for his stand-up comedy, co-directs (with Kavi Shastri) and co-writes (with Amogh Ranadive) Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos,which starts on a promising note, but the chaos and the humour that come along with it runs its course midway through the film. I was seated when the film began, which showed Aamir Khan as a dreaded gangster in Goa’s fictitious Panjore out on a killing spree and engaging in a gun fight with two British agents.

Khan’s character bumps off quite early, along with Sumukhi Suresh (who plays a dutiful maid busy cleaning the room amid firing). Wasted potential, really, as both actors would have accelerated the story’s absurdities better than the protagonist Happy Patel does.

What’s the plot of Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos?

Happy Patel (Das) is raised as a Brit by two ex-MI7 spies. The two ‘Dads’, as he keeps calling them, want him to become a spy for the British government and train him as well, but Happy keeps failing the MI7 entrance test. His interest lies in food and he knows what ingredients to use to make bland dishes taste delectable. When an Birtish scientist, the brain behind a revolutionary fairness cream, goes missing in India, Happy is recruited by MI7 and sent off to Goa, to feed all stereotypes around the West’s obsession with the beach state and also find the missing lady. Happy is also told that his origins lie in Goa, and in a three-week crash course, he is taught to be Indian. His crash course includes eating with your hands instead of a spoon, spreading arms like SRK to seduce women, and speaking Hindi the wrong way.

In Panjore, he meets Geet (Sharib Hashmi), his local handler who sips tea to speak in code language, Roxy (Srushti Tawde), the handler’s handler and a techie genius and Rupa(Mithila Palkar), an aspiring dancer. His search for the missing lady takes him to Mama (Mona Singh), the local don, who also runs a catering business and is obsessed with cutlets. But how to connect the dots between Mama, the missing expat and Happy’s own back story? Chaos, confusion and dollops of comedy ensue.

What works and what does not

Lots of meta references, including one brief reunion of sorts of the Delhi Belly cast compising of Das, Imran Khan (god, how much he has been missed), and Kunal Roy Kapoor and double-meaning dialogues with Hindi gaffes make you laugh out loud. Das is almost everywhere, he sings, dances, woos the girl and even dances off in the middle of a gory fight with the villain. The film takes digs at NRI stereotypes, their obsession with Goa, Hindi films, blind love for SRK kind of romance, politics and more. While the first half is enjoyable, in the second, the chaos overpowers logic, and the humour fizzles out.

I was keen to watch more of Sumukhi, Aamir and Mona on screen- all of whom are not used to their potential. Neither is Mithila Palkar, a gifted performer, who is reduced to being just a petty face in the film.

The film has a lot of Vir Das. While the comedian’s act on stage has been well-received across the world, he is not the right choice to play a leading man in a comedy film. His British-accented Hindi sounds annoying after a point, even though he keeps it consistent, unlike the comedy. Das grimaces and shrugs through the two-hour-long comedy and shines mostly in the first half. His aide, Sharib Hashmi, has a more natural flair with his comic timing on screen, but gets limited scope to shine.

There are jokes and gags in plenty. A Sikh Man dreamily says ‘Daddy’ whenever Happy spreads his arm wide, SRK style, the subtitles are misspelt purposely to reiterate Happy’s wonky Hindi, there is a cook-off right in the middle of a climax featuring Sanjeev Kapoor, a gun wielding gangster’s answer to the question ‘what’s happening?’ is “murdering”, Happy shields himself from a butcher knife attack by performing some signature steps from iconic Bollywood songs.

Final verdict

Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos is a comedy for a select few. On paper and while writing, the jokes may have felt funny but not all land that effectively. It’s mad and chaotic, as it should be for a comedy, but perhaps Das’s performative humour doesn’t land as effectively as his comic sets on stage.

Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos is now running in theatres.