There are comedies and then there are comedies. Ganesh Acharya's Money Hai Toh Honey falls into the category of those very wannabe kind of films. It is a film which is trying hard to be a comedy but unfortunately falls flat on its face. There is no froth here, hardly any moments worth laughing at, and very few gags. Even a director like Priydarshan has been known to go a little wrong with the correct mix for a comedy. And this is only Acharya's second attempt at direction, last year's Swami being his first. The film is just not entertaining enough. To add to it, it has actors of the caliber of Govinda and Manoj Bajpai, who are totally wasted in their respective roles.
The film is basically about these six characters who come into an inheritance. One of them is Bobby (Govinda), the son of a rich man, who has run away from home as he wants to prove himself to his father. The next is a character called Lalabhai (Manoj Bajpai), who looses all his money when his business flops; the third is character called Gaurav (Aftab Shivdasani), a copywriter who has lost his job. Then there is a struggling model called Manik who is sleeping around with a fashion designer (Archana Puran Singh). Shruti (Celina Jaitley) is a struggling fashion designer and Ashima (Hansika) is a television actress who is dying to make it big in the movies. These motley groups of people learn that they have become owners of multi crore business. But to their dismay, they realize that they are not sole inheritors of the property but have to share it with the other five. Also, they are informed by a lawyer that the company has some pending loans worth some crores which have to be paid. Till such time the debts are not cleared, they are forced to remain as hostages together. The man bestowing this property on them is a character played by none other than Prem Chopra. He randomly selects six numbers and issues these messages to our six protagonists, all of who are losers.
The first half is devoted to exposition and we are introduced to all the characters and their lives. The second half of the film deals with what they do once they are in house arrest together. Even though the premise of the film has some promise in it, it is hardly developed satisfactorily. The culprit here, as in most Hindi films, is the script. The first half of the film could have been snazzier and the second half, which has a lot of potential to be comic, could have been developed by a more mature hand. The situations as they appear in the film are hardly funny. Hence the entire experience of watching this film is a drag.
The only actor who manages to raise a laugh or two is Govinda. But that's because he is the kind of actor who can conjure laughter out of apparently nothing, almost like a magician. It's sad to see him stuck in a setup like this. But even a Govinda cannot shoulder the entire film on his shoulders. Also he is quite a misfit for the role itself, which required a much younger actor. Then there is Manoj Bajpai, who one has always associated with good cinema and performance oriented roles. He seems very uncomfortable in the film, and with his role, and it shows. Of the others, it is perhaps Aftab who is able to do most justice to his character. Among the females, it is only Archana who manages to raise a few feeble laughs. Hansika and Celina are just too shrill. Oldtimer Prem Chopra is just about okay. Upen Patel too is just about okay. Ravi Kissen, the Bhojouri film hero, seems wasted in this film. The problem with this film is that most of the actors in film are capable of good and even great performances but are stuck with a role that demands nothing of them and a script which is going nowhere. One can't really blame them as they all do the best that they can in the given circumstances.
However, the film's music makes for very pleasant hearing. Composed by Nitin Arora and Soni Chandi, it is different from your run of the mill Hindi film music and has mostly been well picturised in the film.
At the end of the day, Money Hai Toh Honey Hai has very little honey in it. It is not a well made film, well thought out film and fails to keeps one's interest going. Quite silly actually!