Film:Money Hai Toh Honey Hai
Director: Ganesh Acharya
Producer: Kumar Mangat
Presenter :EROS International
Cast :Govinda, Esha Deol, Upen Patel. Aftab Shivdasani, Celina Jaitley, Kim Sharma, Ravi Kishan,Isha Koppikar, Manoj Bajpai, Hansika Motwani and others
Rating :1.25/5
Mumbai: Ganesh Acharya seems to have got just one brief from producer Kumar Mangat for this movie. Make it loud.
Money Hai Toh Honey Hai has to be applauded for one solid reason. It is after years that a movie has lived up to its promos. The promos promised a film full of colour, noise and little sense with a decibel level beyond the threshold of normal humans. The film lives up to it exactly.
It’s not a mercenary saga of hard-pressed individuals or thugs scheming for money, thankfully. This caper has a nutty industrialist choose his heirs by some random method and then follows it up with what do the six people do when they realise they are chosen. It could’ve made a decent concept. But then director Acharya tediously goes into the back story of each of those six lasting till the interval. So fond he is of explaining the problems of each of them, he might have started with their birth.
But then, finally the back stories end and the movie begins. Post-interval, the six come to know of their wealth and the turn the screenplay takes makes you wish the back stories had continued till the end. Shabby presentation, with less focus on story-telling and more on entertaining with gags ruins proceedings that could have made the film somewhat endearing to a B- class audience.
Dance-master Acharya though makes sure that everyone remembers for life that this film was made by a choreographer. Extravagant sets, lavish (but non-stylish) costumes, gaudy colours and loads of bikini-clad firang girls complete the proceedings of each and every of his song sequences which ultimately look fruitless appearing without rhyme or reason. Like we said, more focus on entertaining than story-telling.
Not only is the film a less-than-mediocre caper but is insignificant and cheerless. Govinda in such pallid atmosphere is a saddening thought at the fall of the entertainer No.1. Not only because the film does not deserve him but also because he does nothing to deserve the film. His presence, charisma, style and the typical Govinda-appeal is sorely missing not to mention the length of the role. His flabby close-ups are embarrassing and so are the multiple claims of how young he is. His pairing with Hansika, probably one-third his age completes the absurdities of this tryingly absurd film.
Surprisingly, the film has a flow, even with its patchy screenplay and some energetic performances which speak of Acharya’s knack of getting stuff out of his actors. Upen Patel does not ham nor is he wooden. Celina Jaitley is not a bimbo but her role of a talented fashion designer takes things a bit far. Aftab Shivadasani wears his character effortlessly and Manoj Bajpai delivers a hand-held comic performance which is limited and hence works.
Hansika hams away to glory, a demand of her character but is short-shifted by her kiddish-with-perpetual-cold voice. Archana Puran Singh is delightful in her aging-but-fishing-for-young-boys-designer role and is soon going to take on Rekha’s mantle of agelessness. Prem Chopra as the eccentric industrialist is fine and Ravi Kishen has nothing much to do.
The memory quotient of this film is smaller than its entertainment quotient. The fanfare and surprisingly ok production values might attract B and C centre crowds but won’t send them home satisfied.
