‘Housefull 5’ (2025) Movie Review - Not A Jolly Good Time

While I was coming out of my screening of Housefull 5, I heard a girl ranting to her boyfriend that she hated the jokes, the film - everything. She went on to say that the first Housefull is the best film of this franchise. I smiled and quickly remembered how, a few days back, people were missing Tiger Shroff when the trailer of War 2 was released. Go further back a little, and you will find that many people were feeling nostalgic about Imran Khan and his rom-com movies. I guess when the audience is fully submerged in shit, they start to miss mediocre things. Mediocrity, after all, smells better than shit. This is a fantastic way to degrade the taste of the mass audience. Make them blow whistles for Badass Ravikumar and give them wet dreams with something as middling and self-congratulatory as Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani and Black, White & Gray - Love Kills. But let's return to that angry girl. She's not alone when she says Housefull 5 is appalling. I am sure many people will share the same sentiment. Then again, to say that Housefull 5 is a bad film is like saying that, um, water is a colorless, shapeless liquid. What else can you expect from a franchise that started poorly and continued to be a tasteless, humorless baloney? On the flip side, there are people who also enjoy these films, and their laughter erupts like a cheer of approval: "Yes! We want more Housefull movies!" These audience members are the reason this franchise is still alive.
  

There is no doubt that Housefull 5 is pure rubbish. But to casually dismiss it as a worthless, junky piece would be a serious oversight. There is a reason why it works for a certain section of the audience: It dives headfirst into its lazy, lowbrow humor—unashamed and all-in. Director Tarun Mansukhani strives to make the audience laugh with relentless zeal. I admit I laughed when Batuk Patel (Johnny Lever) constantly had to put a flower garland on a photo (and remove it) and when Jalbhushan (Abhishek Bachchan) was accidentally attacked by a broom inside the prison. Yet, I felt uneasy — creeped out, even — by the jokes on the screen. Housefull 5 is almost unwatchable, not due to the sexist, misogynistic, terrible jokes but for the nostalgia it displays for these sexist, misogynistic, terrible jokes. Mansukhani seems to be fondly remembering a time when women were openly presented as dumb sex objects without much protest from the public. He casts Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Chitrangada Singh, Sonam Bajwa, and Soundarya Sharma for their cleavage, not personality. And Mansukhani doesn't use them for raunchy gags either because even raunchiness requires skill (I recommend the first American Pie and There's Something About Mary). In Housefull 5, the camera sees the actresses as pieces of meat. I don't think "sees" is the right word since what actually happens is a lot of ogling. What's deeply unsettling is that there are scenes, like the one where Shiraz (Shreyas Talpade) desperately searches for his glasses to get a better look under Lucy's (Sharma) skirt, that leave you with the feeling that you are watching things through the eyes of a creep.
  

However, even if one were to ignore the misogyny (which is hard to do), Housefull 5 still comes across as pathetic. The jokes are meh, and the murder mystery aspect is utterly boring. The two elements are not connected coherently - the tone is jarring. There is no point in talking about the performances because it doesn't matter whether the actors are flat or fine. Mansukhani pays more attention to throwing jokes on the screen — a task he performs haphazardly. The intention, I guess, is to numb the mind of the audience (either through laughter or boredom) so that they won't ask how and when the real Jolly boarded the ship. Mission successfully unsuccessful, Mr. Mansukhani.

Final Score- [1/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times