Housefull 5 turns animal cruelty into comedy, and it's ugly

India Today

a day ago

That it was going to be a comedy of crass jokes and creepy men ogling women was expected. But, that it would also make a joke of animal cruelty was new. If anything, 'Housefull 5' is an anti-comedy, where humour is forced out of an animated parrot - there to be beaten to death.Among its many scenes - problematic and callous - one features Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh fighting a parrot. A digitally-created, colourful parrot, named Gucci, who speaks and mimics. The makers establish that he is an incarnation of a parrot seen in one of the previous 'Housefull' movies, and is here to take revenge on Akshay's Julius in some 'Om Shanti Om'-like trope. As absurd as it sounds, it would still have been fine until the makers included a tough fight scene between the parrot and three leading men - in an attempt to add some silly laughs to an even sillier twist.advertisementAs the parrot tries to attack Julius, he is caught, body slammed, beaten with a frying pan, thrashed against the walls, almost hung to burn, and is sucked into a vacuum cleaner. None of that makes you laugh, but helps you understand the kind of humour that tickles the makers - the kind that sees violence, even towards animals, as slapstick gold. That the parrot is AI-generated doesn't make it look any less cruel, because it's more about the intention, and what they are willing to show for cheap laughs.
The scene stands out for its disturbing impact. It's more to do with normalising cruelty as comedy - making you question yourself about coming this far to see comedy in cruelty. You also have to look at this scene in a larger picture, where the most popular faces from the Indian film industry are seen contributing to the desensitisation of animal cruelty in a country where such cases often go dismissed or under-reported.advertisementBy using a digitally-created bird to execute the violent scene, the makers have further proved how they don't care that they are amplifying the idea that cruelty is acceptable. This is not a case of something going out of their hands. In fact, the creators seem to have full control over what they are to animate, script and glorify, especially because a digitally-created bird is in the play.Brutalising a parrot for laughs, with no care for the audience's discomfort whatsoever, comes from a deeply flawed and insensitive comic instinct. You can go ahead and forgive them if their jokes don't land well in a film, but how to forgive them if they let you sink deeper in your seats, with hands covering your face as you watch a parrot subjected to relentless violence on the big screen? For a film heavily backed by leading faces in the industry, and a major production house, 'Housefull 5' is nothing more than a tone-deaf representation of the worst kind of comedy. It shows shocking indifference to the cultural impact of its content - something both concerning and telling of how little accountability mainstream cinema demands of itself.The audience's acceptance of crass fun aside, but when cruelty becomes currency, it's time we re-examined our collective understanding of the cost of comedy.
IN THIS STORY#Akshay Kumar#Riteish Deshmukh#Jacqueline Fernandez#Abhishek Bachchan