Cast: Shahid Kapoor, Ileana D’Cruz, Padmini Kolhapure Direction: Rajkumar Santoshi Genre: Comedy Duration: 2 hours 25 minutes Story: In his tryst to be a hero, Vishwas Rao ends up becoming a fake filmi cop. But fate offers him funnier choices.

REVIEW: Star-struck (rather Salman-struck) smalltowner, Vishwas (Shahid) lands in Mumbai with two sapnas. First, his own starry dreams (ruled by Rajnikanths and Khans) of being a Bollywood superstar. Second, his high-on-melodrama maa’s (Padmini) long cherished dream – “mera beta police afsar banega”. But fate takes a hilarious twist when he’s mistaken for a good cop (Thank Heavens, he has Chulbul Pandey for inspiration. With tighties, googles, dabanggisms, and his own sizzling ‘Munni’). He falls in love with the overzealous Kajal (Ileana), a social worker with many chaotic-causes. Soon he’s caught in chor-police crossfire between the dreadfully funny gangster Gundappa Das (Saurabh Shukla) and the asli good cop (Darshan Jariwala) – both put up rip-roaring acts.

In a comedy of errors and events, through heartbreak and hilarity, emotion and eccentricity, Vishwas flips between fake herogiri and asli heroism. Shahid is ‘phaadu’, really! Whether he’s doing the dhating naach (outstanding); playing rowdy Romeo, a goofy goon, or maa ka laadla; he’s back in form and packs in all with terrific chutzpah and comic flair. He makes the most of every ’emoticon’ there is and leaves you ‘ROTFL’. This one belongs to Kapoor and he revels in it. Ileana is good at emotions, but not so tuned into comedy yet. Padmini, the melancholic maa with tons of mascara plays the part with ease, though we wish she induced more laughs over tear-jerking ‘maa-kasam’ dialogues. Sanjay Mishra, as Vishwas’ Bollywood advisor is uproariously funny. Santoshi shows flashes of his previous ‘Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani’, odes to his own classics (‘Andaz Apna Apna’, ‘Ghayal’) and of course the ultimate fan-boy moment when Vishwas meets his screen idol Salman (the asli hero!).

The first half offers loads of cackles, chuckles, witticisms and spoofy scenes. Post-interval the comedy collapses for a bit with forced OTT drama, khaali-peeli action, and too many songs breaks, but makes a comeback with delightfully funny moments. This one’s worth it for the ‘howlarity’ of it all. And Shahid in his element. ‘Vishwas’ nahin hota? …Go watch! (LOL! Maa Kasam, it’s just the comedy hangover!)