Thank You (2011) – Review

Thank You (2011)

After a break in movie releases at the box office because of the World Cup, the first movie to come is Thank You, an Anees Bazmee film starring Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Irfan Khan, Rimi Sen, Suniel Shetty and Celina Jaitley. The story of Thank You is quite simple. It revolves around three philandering husbands Bobby Deol (Raj), Irfan Khan (Vikram) and Suniel Shetty (Yogi) who are very good friends. Raj and Simran (Sonam Kapoor) make a happily married couple until Simran finds out that Raj is cheating on her. While Yogi’s wife Maya (Celina Jaithley) and Vikram’s wife Shivani (Rimi Sen) already suspect their straying husbands, for Simran it was a shock! Maya insisted her to hire an expert private detective, Kishan played by Akshay Kumar. That’s when the cat-mouse race starts where Kishan tries to show the real side and infidelity of these three husbands specifically Raj. On the other hand the husbands try to get out of the mess with the help of Vikram and his advice.

Kishen manages to expose the real faces of the three men to their wives and that’s when Simran decides to commit suicide. Since Kishen is playing the angel here, he manages to convince her to live and promises to bring back her husband. And while this detective helps the females get even with their husbands and then eventually get them back, you can’t help but wish he would have solved the mystery of what the story actually is.

The plot doesn’t offer anything new. It has been done before in No Entry, Masti, Do Not Disturb, Life in a Metro, Biwi No 1 and so on. Despite the clichéd plot, the first half isn’t bad. It has moments which make you laugh. Akshay Kumar has been perfect with his comic timing and probably the only reason why anyone would want to watch this film. Even though the film doesn’t revolve around him, he manages to make the audience laugh and does what he’s good at. It’s a different story altogether that he’s done the same thing in thousands of other movies.

Post interval Thank You becomes a drag. There aren’t any surprises in the film after the interval and one can easy guess exactly what is going to happen. That said, there are several genuinely funny scenes in the movie that make you realize watching wasn’t such a bad decision but these scenes are very scarce. The entire kisna scene in the first half makes one laugh. Another sequence where a drunken Raj bashes up a person wearing black hat in a pub, only because he had seen his wife Sanjana with man in a black hat also adds life to the second half. However, like I mentioned earlier these scenes aren’t enough to glue the viewer’s eyes to the screen. Another strong element of the film is Irfan Khan, who is flawless as an actor and that is evident in Thank You as well. Suneil Shetty also manages to contribute some comedic scenes to the movie whereas Bobby Deol fails to make a mark.

Coming to the female actress, Sonam definitely looks convincing in the innocent wife’s role. Rimi Sen has also done a great job whereas Celina Jaitley has very limited scope. In fact she just disappears from the film for a while, which is absurd.

Thank You could have been much better if it had better music. Akshay’s movie, no matter how silly and ridiculous they are, always have great music. Take Tees Maar Khan or Housefull for example. Even Patiala House gave us one song to remember for quite some time but unfortunately there is not even one song that could be added to our playlists.

The first hour of Thank You is funny and entertaining but after that the film is just a drag and loses its charm. What started as a comical and watchable film ends up making you wonder why did you choose to watch it in the first place? Indeed the actors weren’t bad but while watching them you wish there was a better plot, which wasn’t done over and over again. The major problem with thank you is its clichéd story that makes you want to say thank you but no thank you! – Hafsah Sarfraz

Rating – 2.5 out of 5

Cast and Production Credits

Year – 2011, Genre – Comedy/Romance, Country – India, Language – Hindi, Producer – Ronnie Screwvala, Director – Anees Bazmee, Music Director – Pritam Chakraborty, Cast – Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Bobby Deol, Celina Jaitley, Irrfan Khan, Suniel Shetty, Rimii Sen, Mallika Sherawat, Mukesh Tiwari, Ranjeet, Rakhi Vijan, Smita Jaykar, Shilpi Sharma, Vidya Balan

Comedy . Drama