3 Thay Bhai Movie Review

 '3 Thay Bhai' is the kind of film for which the makers may claim after a year that it failed because 'it was way ahead of it's times'. That it tried to follow European cinema. That it had a bit of Russian folk element and setting, especially due to all around snow peaked mountains and 'Chook' and 'Gake' kind of characters. Yup, I remember reading about such characters in those cute looking books around centred on Russian folk fare but '3 Thay Bhai' is far from coming anywhere close. On the contrary the film ends up being a boring and frustrating piece of cinema that makes those two hours seem much longer, especially in the dying moments (literally so) when it goes on and on with a celebration song thrown in even before the end credit title roll begins.

The film is (obviously) about three brothers who can't see eye to eye and have a bone to settle. This is owing to some misunderstanding owing to their troubled childhood. The trouble though is that these misunderstandings too are so childish that it makes one think why couldn't the three of them have just come together on a session of drinks (considering the fact that all of them are so fond of liquor, as shown in the film) and resolved all their differences.

Nevertheless, the writers and the director here seem to have grown up on Tom & Jerry and they have ended up making an entire film that is based on similar humour though being utterly charm-less. Also, to bring in certain elements that could have appealed to the adults, there is this entire meaningless episode dedicated to the gypsy women who are cooking 'paranthas' at the top of the hill followed by the one involving a cop who has his own unique (but hardly funny) way of giving third degree torture.

I mean if a broken door, falling roof, misplaced ashes, a dead dog, dysfunctional fireplace, burnt underwear, a bottle of whiskey, damaged fuse, lot of snow and an intruder could make three brothers go so mad with each other then well, they didn't deserve to be together after all. It indeed is extremely unbelievable to see three grown up accidentally tripping over other and shouting as if a bullet went through their hearts. Come on, even cartoon channels have started showing projecting better humour on screen these days, what with 'Doraemon' fast replacing 'Tom & Jerry'.

In a setup like this, one would have expected the actors to be all charged up. But then it seems that they too realised that it was an exercise in futility and hence seem to have given up. Om Puri aims at being angry for the entire duration in the film but after a while even his jokes dry up. Shreyas isn't his 100% self and is surprisingly patchy. Deepak too is a far cry from his 'Tanu Weds Manu' days and his subdued act seems laboured. Yograj Singh as 'dadaji' is a poor version of Puneet Issar while Ragini Khanna overacts in a manner similar to that of Divya Dutta.

Yes, an occasional banana peel humour does invoke a smirk or perhaps an occasional laugh but that happens only for a moment, for a dialogue, for a split second situation but never for an entire scene. This means that despite having actors such as Om Puri, Shreyas Talpade and Deepak Dobriyal on board, all you end up with is an expression of boredom on your face right through the film's narrative with a climax that is not just long drawn but also clichéd, predictable and a trigger for the question that pops up in your mind - 'So, what's the big deal?'!

Rating: *1/2