Director David Dhawan is back in business with Partner. Or so it would seem by the amount of laughs his nonsensical caper generates. Dhawan has been sorely missed by audiences. The director seemed to have misplaced his funny bone in the last few years after giving audiences films like Deewana Mastana, Bade Miyan, Chhote Miyan and Haseena Maan Jayegi among others. But it seems that with Partner, he is coming back to doing what he does best, churning out nonsensical films like the current one.

The film, starring Salman Khan and Govinda, is full paisa vasool one could say. The movie is a take off on the Hollywood film Hitch starring Will Smith. Actually, it would make more sense to say that it is David Dhawan's take on the film. In Dhawan's hands, the original is shred of its intelligence quotient and what we have instead is Salman Khan, the love-guru, and Govinda, his client, running amok for two odd hours. You definitely need to leave your thinking cap back at home to enjoy their comic antics. It is not the most high-brow kind of comedy. The film is replete with gags and jokes on gays and everyone else as well, one-liners and similar nonsensical fare.
Dhawan really doesn't need a script as such. Not when you have a Govinda and a Salman. But there is nevertheless still a story in place. Salman is Prem, the loveguru, or your modern day matchmaker. Bhaskar Diwakar Chaudhary (Govinda) is a bumbling middleclass, guy, who works in this multinational and has fallen in love with his beautiful boss, Priya (Katrina Kaif). He turns to Loveguru for help. However, Prem refuses to help him as he is an impossible case. Priya and Bhaskar are too different. But Bhaskar wins him over with his persistence. Meanwhile, Prem himself falls in love with a tabloid reporter Naina (Lara Dutta), a single mother with a precocious kid. The reporter is constantly chasing and being chased by Chhota Don (Rajpal Yadav), in a take-off on Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan's Don.

That is the premise on which the entire film is based. What really makes this film work is the onscreen chemistry between Salman and Govinda. The duo are a class apart. The contrast between their acting styles and their personas is what makes the jodi work. Salman continues to do what he does best, which is, strut around with his superbly sculpted body and play the hero. Govinda provides the ideal contrast with his tapori style. After a long time, the actor seems to be in fine nick. Even if does go over the top in places, it kind of works out fine as the entire film goes overboard. I mean, where else would you find a seven-year-old kid making a voice-activated missile, which is set off by mistake by Bhaskar and almost ends up killing Prem. Incidentally, the kid, Prem's nephew, makes a disappearing act after this and is never mentioned in the film thereafter. Then there is the Chhota Don, who behaves most un-Don like. He gets bashed up by everybody. Like we said before, it makes no sense to try and make sense of the nonsense that takes place in the world of Prem and Bhaskar and their rest of their ilk in Partner. As for the women in the film, Lara and Katrina, they have little to do other than look beautiful. And they do.

The film's pace is fine. Things just keep happening. It's just towards the end that the film gives the impression of being stretched unnecessarily. The entire honeymoon sequence could have been shorter. It just goes on and on and does become a little predictable. The soundtrack of the film composed by Sajid-Wajid is quite like the film itself. Time pass music at its best. But the title track, 'Do You Wanna Partner,' and 'Dupatta Tera Nau Rang Da,' stand out.
Coming back to the actors, the evergreen Salman Khan is a pleasure to watch. Full marks to Govinda, despite being and looking obese and middleaged, he matches Salman step for step. Special mention must be made of the child actor who plays Lara's son in the film. He puts in a very natural performance and it helps that he looks cute as well.
Partner is worth a watch for laughs. Dhawan succeeds to an extent with the film. It could have done with a little more control and some serious editing. But the Salman and Govinda jodi truly rocks. The partnership works well for the film.