Cast: Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone, Abhishek Bachchan, Boman Irani, Sonu Sood, Vivaan Shah, Jackie Shroff
Direction: Farah Khan
Genre: Drama
Duration: 2 hours 59 minutes

STORY: Six losers in an international dance championship, with an ulterior motive. An elaborate diamond robbery.

REVIEW: It’s ‘Happy New Year’ time. So, Happy Diwali! And it’s all about everything happy, happy. So let’s stick to being ‘slap happy’. Hence, the good things first. The extra Happy Ending, with the cutest scene in the movie being producers, Gauri and SRK’s beautiful baby Abram looking angelic. And an appearance by director Farah Khan’s terrific triplets.

Throw in Abhishek Bachchan’s tapori snake dance and bouts of ‘Englis’ speaking. Add on Shah Rukh’s dimpled charm (unmissable greased fababs – gets a lot of close-ups); and yes, Deepika’s glossy, massy ‘Lovely’ dance number. But hold on, review abhi baki hai mere dost. Charlie (SRK), with his suave English and blonde streak (but Indiawaale heart) has devised a heist. He gathers his team of Charlie’s Angels, with Jag (Sood), the ex-military, muscle man (he beats Charlie on the abshow). Tammy (Irani), a safe-cracker who gets occasional epileptic attacks of 30 seconds.

Mohini (Padukone), a bar-dancer, obsessed with angrezi speaking men; so she falls in love with Charlie (obviously). And Nandu Bhide (dimaag mein keede), the boisterous bewda who dishes out the best laughs in the film. And Rohan (Shah) the nerd hacker who cracks the codes. The gameplan is to participate in the World Dance Championship, on New Year’s eve; but the ultimate goal is to break into the Shalimar vault (mera pyaar Shalimar) to rob diamonds, from the closed fist of Charan Grover (Shroff).

The story is simple, perched on a lavish canvas – glitzy, glamorous, gorgeous bodies (read: male torso) and with self-deprecating humour which stands out and entertains in parts (a recap of moments from SRK’s own films!). The first half spends too much time setting a plot that’s fairly uncomplicated. It’s not a film about an ingenious heist (far from ‘Oceans Eleven’) or dance, it’s a film about everything genuinely Bollywood – where logic gets a ‘fit’, gloss covers up the glitches, cameos creep in without a warning; and the rest of the plot finds comfort in the hero’s hot-bod (anything from 6 to 8 packs – take your pick!) and outstretched arms. The cast pulls off their acts well; and leave you with some feel-good moments, but not enough to last three long hours.