Welcome To The Jungle movie review: Akshay Kumar's star-studded comedy delivers laughs, but not much logic

Welcome To The Jungle review: When the trailer of Welcome To The Jungle was unveiled, I had only one question in mind: could the film manage to give enough screen space to all the iconic actors it had assembled? Directed by Ahmed Khan, the action-comedy is the third instalment in the Welcome franchise, which has remained a fan favourite since the first film was released in 2007.

While that question lingers throughout its runtime, one thing becomes clear almost immediately: the film has no intention of playing it safe. Penned by the late Neeraj Vora, Welcome To The Jungle embraces complete madness, packing its narrative with slapstick humour, nostalgia, meta references and a never-ending parade of familiar faces rather than chasing logic or realism.

Welcome To The Jungle plot

The story begins with a corrupt businessman who plans to convert his black money into legitimate losses by producing a ₹2,000 crore film that is guaranteed to flop. To execute the plan, his trusted aide Dubey (Johny Lever) suggests choosing the worst possible filmmaking team, helmed by flop filmmakers Dev (Paresh Rawal) and Das (Rajpal Yadav). The cast and crew of the fake film consists of Nainsukh (Shreyas Talpade), partially blind cinematographer, actor Rajiv (Akshay Kumar), a once-successful Bollywood star who now acts in Bhojpuri films, his former girlfriend Nadia (Disha Patani), and gangsters Romeo (Arshad Warsi) and Yeda Anna (Suniel Shetty), who are a part of the cast because Dev and Das failed to repay the money they owe them.

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To further inflate the budget, several other actors, including Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda and Daler Mehndi, have been signed for the doomed production.

Filming begins and just when everything appears to be going according to plan, the team lands in a remote village due to a sudden twist. Unknown to them, the region is a target of terrorists led by Zatara (Jackie Shroff), assisted by Abdullah (Aftab Shivdasani) and Ghoni (Vindu Dara Singh).

Then enter the villagers, including Raveena Tandon, Farida Jalal and Kiran Kumar, who mistake the arriving film crew for genuine Indian Army personnel, as everyone is already dressed in military uniforms. The terrorists make the same assumption, and a series of misunderstandings, and chaos begins.

From this point onwards, the film goes far away from reality, and the cast finds itself using heavy artillery, crossing borders, fighting terrorists, having emotional reunions and somehow landing near the India-Pakistan border. The story rarely takes time to explain how any of this is happening, and perhaps that's exactly the point.

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What works in the film

I genuinely must appreciate the honesty of the film as it refuses to apologise for its absurdity. It knows it is loud, silly and completely over-the-top, and never attempts to cover those things with sophistication.

The comedy in Welcome To The Jungle is because of the chaos rather than clever plotting. Almost every major character has an amusing personality quirk. Shreyas Talpade's cinematographer is partially blind, Johny Lever's Dubey struggles with his speech, Suniel Shetty's gangster constantly forgets words, Farida Jalal communicates through incomprehensible murmurs, and so on. These recurring traits create several genuinely funny moments.

The nostalgia factor also works at several moments in the film. References to Welcome, Hera Pheri, Mahabharat and several classic Bollywood films frequently pop up. Though not every callback is equally funny, Bollywood fans will surely appreciate many of the meta jokes and self-aware humour.

Several comic exchanges between Akshay Kumar, Paresh Rawal, Suniel Shetty, Arshad Warsi and Johny Lever bring laughs.

Another point that needs to be highlighted is that despite featuring a large ensemble cast, the film shockingly doesn't appear cluttered most of the time.

While the situations remain ridiculous, Akshay Kumar handles both comedy and action scenes with ease. The outdoor locations, production design, and overall visual appeal is good.

What makes the film entertaining is that many jokes genuinely land despite the paper-thin story. If the audience stops thinking about the logic and just enjoys the madness, the cinema hall will be packed with laughter.

What doesn't work

While the scale and jokes entertain, the storytelling is where the film stumbles, and as expected, due to the enormous cast, many actors contribute very little except their presence.

Several familiar faces appear in scene after scene without giving meaningful dialogue or character development. It often feels as though they were included simply because the film wanted as many celebrities as possible.

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And yes, it is an Akshay Kumar film and the actor naturally dominates the narrative, leaving little room for everyone else. Only Suniel Shetty, Arshad Warsi and Jackie Shroff receive decent material, but performers like Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Tusshar Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Disha Patani and several others are mostly underutilised.

The screenplay struggles with consistency, as the first half takes time to establish its absurd premise, while the second half stretches far longer than needed. There are a lot of songs that interrupt the momentum, making the film longer.

As I said earlier, there's literally no logic in the whole film. Characters suddenly turn from struggling actors into trained fighters capable of taking on terrorists.

The most bizarre part was when the narrative suddenly jumped from a jungle village to border conflict and patriotic drama. The emotional portions also fail to create any impact.

Personally, I felt Akshay Kumar's double role was unnecessary as the film already contains more than enough characters.

Additionally, not all references to older films work, as a few seem inserted only for nostalgia with no connection to the story.

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Welcome To The Jungle cast performances

Akshay Kumar is in the spotlight till the credits roll. There's no doubt that Akshay handles comic timing, physical comedy, and action sequences brilliantly- he is one of the best comic actors in Bollywood.

Suniel Shetty and Arshad Warsi's chemistry, banter and comic timing are also praiseworthy. Paresh Rawal and Rajpal Yadav also mark their presence despite the crowded ensemble.

Johny Lever delivers exactly what audiences expect from him, while Shreyas Talpade also adds humour wherever possible.

Jackie Shroff does justice to the role of terrorist leader Zatara, though the character itself borders on caricature. Farida Jalal turns out to be one of the film's pleasant surprises, while Raveena Tandon lends sincerity despite being saddled with repetitive character traits.

Disha Patani, Jacqueline Fernandez, Lara Dutta, Tusshar Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Daler Mehndi, Mukesh Tiwari, Yashpal Sharma and several others remain largely underused despite their considerable screen presence.

Verdict

Welcome To The Jungle is not for people who are looking for logic, realism, a screenplay and even a storyline. Several characters exist only for star value. But Ahmed Khan makes sure to compensate for these things with a load of slapstick comedy, action, nostalgia, and meta humour. The mass entertainer has jokes in almost every scene, and surprisingly, most of them bring laughs.

It is a complete brain-rot comedy that never asks its audience to think too hard. If you are planning to watch the film, go for nostalgia, humour, madness, and the familiar faces, and you will enjoy the absurdity.