The three randiest men in the country (played by the three of the most sporting actors in Hindi cinema) reunite for yet another bedroom misadventure in Great Grand Masti.
Indra Kumar’s sequel to the blockbuster Grand Masti (2013), which in turn was a follow-up to Masti (2004), reunites Amar (Riteish Deshmukh), Prem (Aftab Shivdasani) and Meet (Vivek Oberoi) in their perpetual quest for fulfilling sex. Each of them has a domestic hurdle that has interrupted all coitus. Audiences might recognise in Amar’s meddling mother-in-law, Prem’s pushy sister-in-law, and Meet’s brawny brother-in-law versions of their own obstacles to the heaven they hope to enter.
Prem and Meet accompany Amar to his ancestral home in the significantly named Dudhwadi, where they imagine underclad women to be cavorting around the village square. “Gaon mein wow!” exult the men, but the spell breaks to reveal the women to be toothless crones, leading to the realisation “Gaon mein oww!”
These men with deeply conventional tastes want their women young and stacked, and their dreams are momentarily answered when Ragini (Urvashi Rautela) turns up at Prem’s mansion. She is actually a malevolent spirit who needs to copulate with a man to be liberated from her human form. The men who had been falling over themselves to woo her now run in the opposite direction, but the sultry spectre has them in her grasp.
There are double entendres, of course, and desperation is par for the course. Yet, the material is not as rampantly risqué as in Grand Masti or Mastizaade. There are relatively fewer attempts to milk humour from phallic objects (partly also due to the cuts ordered by the Central Board of Film Certification) and the usually-crass worship of the female anatomy is kept to the minimum.
Only one scene seriously pushes the boundaries. Prem’s mother in law, played by Marathi stage and television veteran Usha Nadkarni, is manhandled by the three men who believe her to be possessed by Ragini’s spirit. In the services of lining her pension fund, Nadkarni goes through the motions with as much dignity as possible.
Deshmukh, Oberoi and Shivdasani have been constant inhabitants of the Masti universe even as the women playing their wives have changed with each new production. The men fit their parts so well that they should be worried. Few other actors can affected states of arousal and clutch their (clothed) nether regions as convincingly as these actors. Their eyes widen, tongues hang out, facial muscles contort and bodies tremble in shock frequently over 134 minutes, and they are amply punished for their efforts by Ragini. Despite the promise held out by the title, this kind of fun is neither great nor grand.