Housefull is a 2010 Indian Hindi-language comedy film directed by Sajid Khan and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala. The film is partly adapted from the 1998 Tamil drama Kaathala Kaathala. The dialogues were done by Anvita Dutt, while Nadiadwala wrote the storyline and Rameshwar S. Bhagat served as the editor. It became the first installment of the Housefull franchise.

The film stars Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone, Riteish Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Arjun Rampal and Jiah Khan. The supporting cast of the movie is Boman Irani, Chunky Pandey, Randhir Kapoor, Lillete Dubey and Malaika Arora, with Jacqueline Fernandez featured in an item number. It was shot across London and Italy on a budget of . The film marked the last screen appearance of Jiah Khan, who died three years after its release on June 3, 2013.

The film released worldwide on April 30, 2010, to mixed critical reviews, in over 750 screens in India. Nevertheless, it proved to be a commercial success. The film grossed over  at the worldwide box office and was declared a super hit. It emerged as the fifth highest earning Bollywood film of 2010 only behind Dabangg, Golmaal 3, Raajneeti and My Name Is Khan according to its net collections of  domestically. The film went on to spawn three spiritual sequels–Housefull 2, Housefull 3 and Housefull 4–released in 2012, 2016 and 2019 respectively.

Plot
The story follows Aarush (Akshay Kumar), a 'panauti' (an unlucky person), who works in a casino and gets money as people lose games of poker. After being rejected from getting married by Pooja (Malaika Arora Khan), a girl who he dearly loves, he then gets punched by her elder brother telling him to keep away from her. Aarush goes to London to stay for some time with his best friend, Bob (Riteish Deshmukh) and his wife, Hetal . Bob is a romantic person all the time and loves his wife so much (Lara Dutta), both working at a casino owned by Kishore Samtani (Randhir Kapoor). Although at first Hetal is unhappy with Aarush's presence, he proves to be a kind-hearted man looking for a family. Bob and Hetal decide to get him married to their boss' daughter, Devika Samtani (Jiah Khan). After the marriage, on their honeymoon in Italy, Devika leaves him for her longtime American boyfriend Benny. Aarush decides to commit suicide by drowning in the sea but is saved by a girl, Sandy (Deepika Padukone), who he kisses when she tries to make him breathe by giving him mouth to mouth.

Sandy originally thinks Aarush is a pervert but when Aakhri Pasta (Chunky Pandey), the owner of Italy's "biggest" hotel where Aarush was spending his honeymoon with Devika, tells Sandy that Aarush is a widower as a joke and his wife died the day of their honeymoon, she befriends him and slowly falls in love with him. What she doesn't know is that Aakhri Pasta was only joking. Aarush calls Bob and Hetal to Italy telling him about the entire situation. Sandy then tells them that they helped Aarush after the death of his "wife" both misinterpret the situation that Aarush lied to Sandy about the dead wife. He later then meets Devika and asks for divorce papers. She then finds out his wife is alive and leaves him. Sandy does not allow Aarush to enter her room so he climbs from her balcony. Pasta thinks Aarush is committing suicide and live telecast is conducted. Sandy then switches on her TV and goes to her balcony but later when Aarush manages to clear the confusion, she accepts him.

The only way Aarush and Sandy can get married is by convincing her elder brother, Major Krishna Rao (Arjun Rampal), a strict Indian Military Intelligence officer who loves his sister and is over-protective of her. Meanwhile, Hetal lies to her father, Batuk Patel (Boman Irani), that Bob owns a mansion and they have a child, so she can meet him after so many years. On the other hand, Sandy tells her brother that Aarush is quite well to do too. The four are then forced to rent a mansion to make Hetal's dad believe that Bob owns it. Confusion prevails and somehow Batuk accidentally believes that Aarush is married to Hetal, and Bob is the cook. In the confusion they bring an African child and pretend that it is the baby. Then, Krishna turns up earlier than expected, much to Aarush's horror that Krishna was the one who punched him earlier for Pooja leading to more lies and the two couples making him believe that Aarush owns the mansion.

For half of the term, the four must pretend that the mansion is owned by Bob, and the rest must pretend that Aarush owns it. Batuk Patel and the Landlady (Lilette Dubey) are Aarush's pseudo parents while Hetal is his sister and Bob is his brother in law. An overly suspicious Krishna goes to the casino as his bag was exchanged with Kishore Samtani. Krishna then sees Bob and Hetal working at the casino and as soon as they spot Krishna, they hide from him. Krishna then uses a lie detector on Aarush to find the truth. But Sandy interrupts and prove with the detector that he loves her and Krishna forgives them. The whole family is invited to the Royal Palace to see Krishna get rewarded by the Queen of the United Kingdom. While this is happening, two workers, Santa (Manoj Pahwa) and Banta Singh (Suresh Menon), are meant to be installing air conditioning gas for the place. However instead they accidentally supply the hall with laughing gas (nitrous oxide) causing everyone to break into an outburst of laughter. During this laughter, the truth is let out but no one seems to be in the right state of mind.

The two workers meanwhile stop the gas from spreading – everyone comes back to their senses. Aarush goes on stage to reveal the truth to Krishna about his ill-fate and believes his engagement with Sandy is now broken. Krishna though believes Aarush is no longer a jinxed loser and instead orders him and Sandy to get married. In the end, Hetal and Bob live together with Batuk Patel, who then marries the Landlady, and Aarush's luck changes for the better. And after a song, Aarush says that nobody is a loser.

Cast
 Akshay Kumar as Aarush Avasthi, Sandy's boyfriend, Pooja's ex-boyfriend and Devika’s ex-husband
 Riteish Deshmukh as Babu Rao "Bob", Hetal’s husband, Aarush’s best friend
 Lara Dutta as Hetal Rao (nee Patel), Bob’s wife
 Arjun Rampal as Major Krishna Rao "Anna", Sandy’s brother
 Deepika Padukone as Soundarya Venkateshwari Bhagyalakshmi Basappa Rao, "Sandy" 
 Jiah Khan as Devika Avasthi (Nee'Samtani), Kishore’s daughter, Aarush’s ex-wife
 Boman Irani as Batuk Patel, Hetal’s father
 Chunky Pandey as Aakhri Pasta
 Aastha Gill as Chindi
 Randhir Kapoor as Kishore Samtani, Devika’s father
 Lillete Dubey as Zulekha Ji
 Malaika Arora Khan as Pooja Rao, Aarush’s ex-girlfriend, Sandy and Major's Elder Sister
 Manoj Pahwa as Santa Singh
 Suresh Menon as Banta Singh
 Daisy Irani as Batuk's mother
 Jacqueline Fernandez as Dhanno (cameo appearance in song "Aapka Kya Hoga")
Rajesh Kava as voice of a talking parrot

Reception

Critical response
Housefull received mixed to negative 
reviews from critics. Review aggregator website ReviewGang rated the film 3.5/10. On website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 43% rotten rating.

Anupama Chopra of NDTV said that it was impossible to take the characters seriously, and gave the movie a rating of 2/5. Rediff gave it a 1/5, calling its humour 'lame'. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN said 'Housefull' makes you cringe in embarrassment and disgust for what passes off as 'entertainment' and 'cinema' these days. Noyon Jyoti Parasara of AOL India gave it a 2 and said, "What annoys most about 'Housefull' is the fact that Sajid Khan claims this to be his tribute to greats like Manmohan Desai and Hrishikesh Mukherjee. Both have been great filmmakers and had their respective domains and Sajid's attempt at combining both ends up has him falling flat on his face." Gaurav Malani from IndiaTimes gave it 2/5 and said "Housefull is a slap on your senses as the film sticks to the slapstick genre in every literal sense.[...] There are some genuinely funny moments in the second half esp. Boman Irani sleepwalking through his portrayal of Gujarati Sholay. Unfortunately it fails to salvage the harm caused by the bland, boring and banal first half. Housefull ends up being a painful experience." Raja Sen of Rediff.com gave a 1.5 out of 5 star rating explaining that "You may wonder if this film's a ripoff of any particular Hollywood DVD, but Sajid would probably say its his homage to Ben Stiller's worst films, picking plotpoints from Along Came Polly, The Heartbreak Kid and Meet The Parents."

In a rare positive review, Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film a rating of 4/5, saying "Housefull is a complete laugh-riot, and is an entertainer all the way, targeted at the masses".

Box office

Upon release, the film had a good opening weekend of Rs. 410 million in India. This gave Akshay Kumar his biggest opening till date, beating Singh Is Kinng. Housefull'''s opening weekend was the second-highest opening weekend collection of all time, behind 3 Idiots. By the end of the first week, the film had collected Rs 498 million, the third-highest first week collection – behind 3 Idiots and Ghajini. It also broke the 2010 record of biggest first week, previously held by My Name Is Khan. Housefull debuted in the United Kingdom at number two and collected Rs 18 million on 55 screens in its opening weekend, while in the United States, the film collected Rs. 28 million on 82 screens in its opening weekend. After six weeks, the film netted Rs. 1.81 billion. The film was declared a hit by Box Office India.
Housefull 2010 total box office grossing crossed 1 billion mark.

Home mediaHousefull was released in Blu-ray and DVD in October 2010. The film's DVD went on to become the first Bollywood film to release on a three-disc edition, as the first disc included the film, the second disc included the video commentary by Sajid Khan, Ritesh Deshmukh, Lara Dutta, Boman Irani and Chunkey Pandey, while the third disc included a documentary.

The film was made available on ZEE5.

Awards and nominations
6th Apsara Film & Television Producers Guild Awards
Nominated –  Apsara Award for Best Performance in a Comic Role – Riteish Deshmukh

2011 Zee Cine Awards
Nominated
Best Director – Sajid Khan
Best Actor – Akshay Kumar
Best Music – Shankar Ehsaan Loy
Best Supporting Actress – Lara Dutta
Best Comedian – Riteish Deshmukh
Zee Cine Award for Best Track of the Year – "Aapka Kya Hoga (Dhanno)"

IIFA Awards
Won
Best Performance in a Comic Role – Riteish Deshmukh

Stardust Awards
Won
Star of the Year – Male – Akshay Kumar
Best Supporting Actor – Arjun Rampal

3rd Mirchi Music Awards
Nominated
Best Item Song of the Year - "Aapka Kya Hoga (Dhanno)"
Best Song Recording - Abhay Rumde, Sameer Khan and Ashish Saksena - "Oh Girl You're Mine"

Controversies
P L Thenappan, the producer of the 1998 Tamil film, Kaathala Kaathala, filed a complaint with the Tamil Film Producers Council, alleging that producer Sajid Nadiadwala and director Sajid Khan had remade his film into Hindi without proper permission. In his complaint, Thenappan said, "I was shocked when I watched the Hindi film as nearly 60 per cent of the scenes from Kadhala Kadhala are there." He also stated that he was in talks with Nadiadwala about selling the remake rights more than a year ago and the deal did not go through.

The film also faced problems due to the remixed version of the song "Apni Toh Jaise Taise", originally from the 1981 film Laawaris directed by Prakash Mehra, music by Kalyanji Anandji. The Calcutta High Court restrained producer Sajid Nadiadwala from the cinematic use of the song.

Soundtrack
The film's soundtrack is composed by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. The lyrics are penned by Sameer and Amitabh Bhattacharya. The song "Aapka Kya Hoga" was a remake of the song "Apni Toh Jaise Taise" from the 1981 movie Lawaaris.

Track list

Reception

The soundtrack met with positive reviews. Abid of Glamsham said  "Summing up, the album is another fun ride as we encounter one chartbuster after another, and hats off to the trio Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, who have once again shown that they have the potential to compose as per the demand of the makers and the script" and gave the album 4 stars.

Samir Dave of Planet Bollywood gave 7.5 stars out of 10, stating "SEL deliver a fun 'n' frothy soundtrack that serves up a whole heaping spoonful of happiness." Joginder Tuteja of Bollywood Hungama gave the album 3.5 stars and stated "Housefull is a fun album and never takes itself too seriously to turn into a landmark affair that would be remembered for years to come. The songs are meant to be entertaining enough to fit in well with the film's narrative and not allow any full moment whatsoever to come in." Rudhir Barman of Sampurn Wire awarded the album 3.5 out of a possible 5 stars saying "The fast paced journey that everything is taking currently, it’s the survival of what works 'today'. In that aspect, 'Housefull' works and ensures that there won’t be any dull moment once the songs play on screen."

SequelSee article: Housefull 2, Housefull 3 and Housefull 4Producer Sajid Nadiadwala announced a sequel to the film on 30 September 2010. In September 2011, it was reported by director Sajid Khan that the film had begun filming. It features Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Randhir Kapoor, Boman Irani and Chunkey Pandey from the previous film in new characters, whilst new additions include Asin Thottumkal, John Abraham, Zarine Khan, Shreyas Talpade and Shazahn Padamsee. It also stars veteran actors such as Rishi Kapoor, Mithun Chakraborty and Johnny Lever in supporting roles. Housefull 2 was released on 6 April 2012 and received a mixed response from critics. The sequel was more successful than the prequel and was declared a Blockbuster'' at the box office.

Another sequel which was directed by Sajid-Farhad featured Akshay Kumar, Ritesh Deshmukh and Jacqueline Fernandez from the previous installments in pivotal roles alongside Abhishek Bachchan, Lisa Haydon and Nargis Fakhri (the newest additions) released on June 3, 2016. It was also a hit.

References

External links
 
 
 
 
 
 

2010 movies
Indian movies
Hindi-language movies
2010 comedy movies
Movies set in England
Movies set in Italy
Movies scored by Shankar–Ehsaan–Loy
Movies involved in plagiarism controversies
Hindi remakes of Tamil movies
Movies featuring an item number
Movies directed by Sajid Khan (director)