Mudassar Aziz made his directorial debut with ‘Dulha Mil Gaya’, a film which had run into trouble at different points during the production phase. When it released, the much delayed film could not lure the audience into the theatres despite having an extended guest appearance by Shah Rukh Khan. Six years later, he resurfaced with ‘Happy Bhag Jayegi’. The film also marked the comeback of Diana Penty who had disappeared after making a confident debut with ‘Cocktail’. The audience warmed up to “Happy Bhag Jayegi’ and the film turned out to be a surprise hit at the box-office. At that time, owing to the theme of the film and nature of the plot, nobody could have imagined that the makers would come up with a sequel to the film. Actually, back then even the makers did not contemplate making a sequel but sometime later, they did and the result is ‘Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi’.
Harpreet Kaur aka Happy (Diana Penty) and Guddu (Ali Fazal), who are now married to each other, are headed to China as Guddu has got an offer to perform in a show there. Another young woman (Sonakshi Sinha) who goes by the same name, that is Harpreet Kaur/Happy, arrives in China to take up a job as a professor in a university. A bunch of criminals kidnap her as they mistake her to be the one coming from India with her husband. Happy manages to escape and bumps into Khushwant Singh Gill (Jassi Gill), who works as a translator in the Indian embassy in China. The arrival of Daman Singh Bagga (Jimmy Sheirgill) and Usman Afridi adds to the chaos.
‘Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi’ does not really have a water-tight plot to boast of. In fact, a lot of things, like Happy’s (Sonakshi) reason behind coming to China, do not seem plausible. A twist involving the revealing of the main antagonist does not come across as very convincing either. There was certainly more logic and plausibility in the screenplay of the original film. Despite all the shortcomings in the script, the film turns out to be a hugely entertaining affair. Mudassar Aziz, who has written the screenplay, dialogues and the lyrics apart from directing the film, has a way with words. His command over Hindi and Urdu and the ability to play around with words was evident in ‘Happy Bhag Jayegi’ but it is more prominent in this film. Though the original had a relatively better fleshed out story, ‘Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi’ takes the humour quotient several notches higher. The film has some of the dialogues one has heard in the recent times. They contribute greatly towards adding humour in the film. The film is filled with a large number of humorous scenes and moments which you remember and smile as you walk out of the theatre. As stated earlier, the screenplay is far from being great but it is good enough and importantly, provides enough space for comic elements to be incorporated in it.
Unlike the original, Diana Penty does not get much scope in this film. Both Ali Fazal and she have cameos in this one. Sonakshi Sinha gets the maximum screen time and does well within the scope she gets as a performer. Her character is not as layered as the other important characters like Bagga, Afridi or even Khushwant. Jimmy Sheirgill gets the best lines in the film. His character is far more funny and entertaining than it was in the original. He brings the house down with his performance. Piyush Mishra’s role is almost as good as that of Sheirgill’s and he, too, acts wonderfully well. Jassi Gill has a certain innocence which works brilliantly for the character he portrays. Aparshakti Khurrana gets a couple of scenes to shine. Denzil Smith is terrific as Adnan Chow. A special mention must be made of Jason Tham who plays Chang.
‘Happy Phirr Bhag Jayegi’ is a supremely entertaining film, replete with plenty of laugh-out-loud moments which makes this film a ‘happy’ watch.