‘Welcome to the Jungle’ movie review: A comedy that forgets to be funny?

There is a joke in ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ about making a bad film for money. Ironically, it ends up feeling like the film is making that joke on itself.

Directed by Ahmed Khan from a story by the late Neeraj Vora, the film follows a businessman who decides to produce a big-budget flop to hide his black money.

Two struggling directors, a fading movie star, gangsters and a film crew get caught in the madness that follows.

The first half is difficult to sit through. The opening 30 minutes throw joke after joke at the audience, but very few land. The story takes too long to get going, and by the time it reaches the interval, patience has already started to wear thin.

Things improve slightly in the second half. The village portions and the film-within-a-film setup doubtfully has a few smiles, even if they never become laugh-out-loud moments.

Fans of old Bollywood comedies will enjoy spotting the callbacks. Suniel Shetty’s return to a version of his ‘Awara Paagal Deewana’ character is one of the better decisions.

Akshay Kumar gets to play with his own image as a fading superstar. Paresh Rawal, Farida Jalal and Kiran Kumar are the surprise package, bringing some of the film's both smile and cringe scenes.

There are also several references to ‘Welcome’, ‘Phir Hera Pheri’, ‘Mohra’, ‘Munna Bhai’ and Akshay's ‘Khiladi’ films which feel like the film is hoping nostalgia alone will replace actual jokes.

The biggest problem is that the cast is enormous, but most actors are reduced to standing in the background waiting for a single dialogue.

Talented performers like Tusshar Kapoor, Aftab Shivdasani, Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda, Mukesh Tiwari and Yashpal Sharma barely get enough to justify their presence.

Lara Dutta's extended appearance feels equally unnecessary, as removing her role would barely affect the story.

The film also feels strangely familiar to the central idea of actors getting caught inside a dangerous real-world situation inevitably recalls ‘Tropic Thunder’, but ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ never develops that concept into something fresh. Instead, it keeps interrupting itself with random songs, forced humour and unnecessary detours.

One song arriving around the interval completely kills whatever the film had finally managed to build.

Not every joke deserves criticism, but several certainly do. Too much of the humour depends on mocking body size, speech patterns, disabilities and appearances. These jokes feel outdated, making the film appear stuck in an era when easy ridicule passed for comedy.

The biggest disappointment, however, is the climax. After spending nearly three hours building towards one final payoff, the ending arrives without the excitement or comic reward the film promises. It simply fizzles out.

That said, ‘Welcome to the Jungle’ has an entertaining idea and a cast that most comedies would dream of.

Sadly, it mistakes a bigger budget and more actors for bigger laughs with a film that lacks a strong script.

Rating: (1/5)