Cirkus is a period-comedy drama based on William Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors. Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus had a massive budget of Rs 200 crore. Cirkus is robust and vibrant. But regardless of having a string of outstanding actors, the film is a shockingly unfunny comedy of errors.
Cast and Crew
The star cast of Cirkus includes Sanjay Mishra, Ranveer Singh, Siddhartha Jadhav, Pooja Hegde, Jacqueline Fernandez, Johnny Lever, Varun Sharma, Mukesh Tiwari, Radhika Bangia, Vrajesh Hirjee, Murali Sharma, and Anil Charanjeett.
Directed by Rohit Shetty, Cirkus is based on Yunus Sajawal’s screenplay and is written by Farhad Samji, Sanchit Bedre, and Vidhi Ghodgaonkar.
The runtime of Cirkus is 138 minutes.
Plot
Fashioned as the renowned Comedy Of Errors by William Shakespeare, Cirkus is the story of two sets of identical twins- Roy and Joy (Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma in double roles), who are raised in Bangalore and Ooty respectively. The two pairs of twins are from Roy Jamnadas of Jamnadas Orphanage (from Golmaal) and are experimenting with interchanging two sets of identical twins to prove that parvarish (upbringing) is more significant than khoon (blood relation).
They were accidentally separated at birth.
One Roy and Joy take over the running of a circus after their father dies while the other pair floats around, waiting for their cue to join the gang. Coincidentally, they end up in the same town at the same time, years later.
The movie follows the story of confusion and misunderstanding that ensues and throws their lives into a tizzy.
Review
Cirkus is undoubtedly a faded copy of Gulzar’s ‘Angoor’. Cirkus even acts as a prequel to Shetty’s Golmaal Again (2017), which is centered on an orphanage. Rohit Shetty starts Cirkus with Roy Jamnadas of Jamnadas Orphanage from Golmaal.
Cirkus is headlined with an amazing ensemble of actors and Indian comedians, excelling in buffoonery, but Rohit Shetty’s comedy entertainer is disappointing. What the film lacks is good writing. The film had many cues for a strong comedy, but it failed due to its writing. The screenplay is lousy and laid-back.
Unfortunately, the film’s main attraction is a comedy, which was forced. The only portions of situational humor that brought gags were directly drawn from Gulzar’s screenplay. The rest, as written by three writers, were no less than loosely written comedy sketches. The comedy scenes were predictable, making it an unfunny comedy of errors.
The laidback situational humor is perked up by music and performances.
The loud and vibrant Ranveer was surprisingly off-color in this vibrant and robust world of Rohit Shetty. Varun as his sidekick brother was also consistently bland. Jacqueline Fernandez and Pooja Hegde, the love interests of the identical twins were present just for their ornamental value.
The female counterpart of the twins hardly added any substance to the buffoonery on display. Sadly, even the circus backdrop has been lazily exploited and has failed to keep the audience interested.
The series of predictability was more sound than comic sense. Sanjay Mishra has tried hard to eke out laughs. He has done a great deal of labor, resulting in only two or three laugh-out-loud moments. Not to forget Johnny Lever’s entry scene that fizzles out after promising a riot! Siddharth Jadhav also had a better arc but nothing as hair-raising as his coiffure.
The movie catches your interest with an item song that features Deepika Padukone.
Notably, this is the first time Ranveer Singh acted in a double role in his entire acting career. And, this is also the first time we saw Jacqueline Fernandez having an on-screen collaboration with actor Ranveer Singh.
