Mr. Joe B Carvalho
Year: 2014
Director: Samir Tewari
Cast: Arshad Warsi, Soha Ali Khan, Vijay Raaz, Jaaved Jaffrey

Arshad Warsi-starrer Jolly LLB was one of the best films of 2013, which depicted a bumbling, small town lawyer’s world. I was quite interested to know whether Mr. Joe B Carvalho, supposedly a story of an inept small town private detective, was an equally interesting take. But does this first major release of 2014 live up to that expectation?

What’s the plot?

An African general, desperately in love of an Indian damsel, is distraught when the girl announces her marriage. To scuttle that wedding, he hires an international assassin (Jaaved Jaffrey) and also assigns an Indian gangster (Vijay Raaz) to assist. Another distraught party, a rich millionaire (Shakti Kapoor) worried over his daughter eloping with a chef, hires a small-time private eye Joe B Carvalho (Arshad Warsi) to investigate the matter. Meanwhile a daredevil police officer (Soha Ali Khan), who happens to be Joe’s ex-girl-friend, is on the lookout for the hired killer. With practically everyone assuming the other party to be someone else (and then trying to bump each other!), there is going to be plenty of chaos!

What’s hot?

·         Arshad Warsi and Vijay Raaz try gamely to play their poorly written parts and even manage to raise a few chuckles.

·         The second half is bearable and at times, even funny.

What’s not?

·         The direction, plot and dialogues are plain amateurish and unfunny. Maut, potty and Carlos kabhi bhi kahin bhi aa sakte hain….! Come on, even a school skit writer wouldn’t write such a trashy line and then, expect people to laugh!

·         Do they really think that hero’s blind mother (Himani Shivpuri) bumping into everything and falling off every building is one hilarious gag to be stretched throughout the film?

·         The first half is total torture!

·         Soha Ali Khan tries hard to spoof a Dabangg lady-cop. She does an item jig and even sports a two piece bikini but unfortunately none of the acts make much impact.

·         Jaaved Jaffrey just proves that he is going from bad to worse (And once I thought this man had great talent!) and the rest of the supporting cast lend him full support to make the on-screen happenings a pain in the…neck!

Verdict:

More than Jolly LLB, which was an insightful take on lawyers and courts; this film has a lot in common with Go Goa Gone. But Go Goa Gone was an intelligent, witty, well-acted and well-directed spoof on zombie-movies whereas Mr. Joe B Carvalho is a horrible attempt to spoof the cop- crime sagas.

A serious waste of talents and money!

Rating

1 and 1/2 stars.