The movie revolves around Lal (Sunil Pal) and his jija Das (Vijay Raaz). Lal wants to set-up his own business and make some money in life while Das is an out of work driver. When Lal wins 2 lakhs the duo come up with an idea to start a travel agency by buying bits and pieces from old cars in chor bazaar and creating a bus. Their next mission is to find passengers to board the bus and take them to Goa. Lal manages to gather an odd mixture of 15 people to board the bus. One of the passengers Harley Davidson (Mac Mohan) dies on the trip half way, but before dying he reveals to the passengers the whereabouts of a treasure he’d hidden away and draws them a map. So no-one cheats anyone the map is ripped in to 15 odd pieces and each member given a piece to carry with them. As expected greed takes over and the passengers all decide to steer off in their own direction to the postmaster’s (Asrani) house who knows further information about he treasure. Along the way there is A.C.P Shakti Singh (Shakti Kapoor) who is after the loot as well as some gangsters (Tinnu Anand, Sanjay Mishra). Where’s the loot hidden and who gets it forms the crux of the story.
The biggest culprit here is Pradeep Thoppil’s story(or lack of). There is pretty much no story and the flimsy tale is merely there for the various actors to extend their comedy act further. There was potential in the story to make a real laugh-riot or even something mildly worthy along the lines of HONEYMOOD TRAVELS PVT LTD, however this is not the case. The screenplay is non-existent and merely there to serve as a time filler for the actors. I can’t complain that the movie is “devoid of any logic” as this is a massy; front-benchers comedy made for B and C centres, however there should at least be some kind of pacing or excitement in the movie.
Director Raj Pendurkar shows a flair for comedy in parts, and surprisingly handles a rather odd assortment of characters rather well, though I had to ask myself here “how much actual work did this guy have to do”? The movie is essentially one very long gag-reel which is scattered with a few individual laughs throughout due to the superb timing of some of the actors and absolutely hilarious, below-the-belt one-liners but apart from that this is the work of a non existent director too. The comedy here is rude and crude with ample double meaning dialogues and sex jokes (we have a pimp trying to get his two whores married off), toilet jokes (we have a patient who can’t stop going for a pee), slapstick (we have a doctor who is actually a vet and sticks an injection the size of a hammer in to someone’s ass), and plenty of witty one-liners and filmi-references.
The dialogues in the movie range from good to plain awful. There are offcourse some hilarious one-liners and witty calls, though at other times they fall flat on their faces. Also the barrage of Amitabh Bachchan jokes start off in good vein, though after a point they become irritating. So what does work? Well to a small extent there are some rather amusing performances.
Sunil Pal is just OK here. His style and delivery often reminded me of Govinda and his delivery is good, however he seems a bit lost here. Vijay Raaz is his usual fantastic self and it’s ultimately tragic to see such a talented actor wasted in a role like this. His dialogues are funny in a dumb way (Teri Maa Ko…Pranaam Karta Hu;), and he’s constantly innovative with what little he’s been given. Raju Shrivastav I’ve always thought is fabulous, and in the right role this guy can bring the house down. His Amitabh Bachchan mimicry and impersonations had me in splits, and his introduction scene where he bursts in to an impromptu “my name is Anthony Gonsalves” is one of the few moments I laughed out loud. Deepak Shirke I’ve always thought is a pretty good actor at comedy with some excellent comic timing (note EK CHAALIS KI LAST LOCAL) and here too he plays his loud and over-the-top part well, though his caricaturish portrayal of a Tamilian pimp did borderline racist at times, yes I know it’s a comedy and all, but it came across in bad vein after a point as his exaggerated accent swiftly crossed the line to buffoonery. Though again he does have a few scattered moments where he hits the right notes (I found the “teen kutti” line hilarious). Aasif Shehikh is plain annoying, his character is funny but he isn’t able to pull it off. Sanjay Mishra is royally wasted here which is sad given he’s such a talented actor. Shakti Kapoor and Tinnu Anand are as per routine. Ehsaan Quereshi is just OK. The girls in the movie are just OK. Then we have a whole host of character actors ranging back from the 70’s including the likes of Mac Mohan, Asrani, Sudhir Panday, Bharat Kapoor, Jagdeep, Paintal, Jr. Mehmoob, Birbal, Viju Khote, Dinesh Hingoo, and Ranjeet who’re all playing characters which they’ve made a niche out of playing their entire career’s, and there an odd sense of nostalgia with watching all these actors together, in one movie, and often in one frame. There no doubt that the cast is having an absolute blast here but sadly that doesn’t often translate with the audience at all.
The music is instantly forgettable and technical values shoddy.
JOURNEY BOMBAY TO GOA is a missed opportunity, simply for the fact such a talented cast has been wasted in a comedy which simply doesn’t raise the laughs as often as it should.
Final Rating: * ¾
