Honeybee is like one of those delectably enjoyable sweets which linger slowly onto your taste buds and remains there. I have to admit, I was prepared to dislike this film or pass it off as one of those very average meaningless flicks which get a great run at the ticket windows purely based on the majority audience's tendency to promote mediocre fare in the name of entertainment.
Full of meaning it may not be, but genuinely fun and endearing it surely is. But a word of warning to older viewers or those who don't like much cuss words and alcohol/drugs in their movies – stay away. I'm not a fan of promoting intoxicants in the movies, but this was done very naturally here and you do tend to believe that there are plenty of groups of friends like that shown in the movie. However, I do think it takes a younger audience to appreciate it more fully.
The basic storyline is nothing much. A group of friends live and party together in some part of the city and they seem to be involved in organizing dance shows or performances. This aspect is not focused on much in the movie. Two of this group is Seb (Asif Ali) and Angel (Bhavana) who are a bit closer to each other. However, all is fine till the days up to Angel's wedding, when she confronts Seb and asks whether the love bug ever bit him. Though he answers in the negative then, later in a state of drunken stupor he realizes the folly of letting her go and hatches a plan with the rest of the gang to kidnap her from her home the night before her wedding. What happens next after they wake up the next morning and Angel's fearsome brothers (led by Lal) decide to hunt them down forms the rest of the story.
What works here big time is the camaraderie and chemistry between the friends. Of particular mention should be the antics of Baburaj and Sreenath Bhasi who prove to be the life and soul of the film and provide genuine hilarity. Both have been growing from strength to strength in the last couple of years, though ironically both are at different ends of their careers. Asif Ali and Bhavana are fine, but I can't shake off the funny feeling that both are pretty lucky actors who have made by in their careers with some pretty average abilities and the luck to be associated with some good filmmakers and supporting actors. Maybe they will prove me wrong yet, but this is not the movie for that. Lal (the director's father) appears as the head of the gang of fearsome brothers and is amply supported by Suresh Krishna and the others.
All in all, a genuinely fun watch with some original comedy rather than the recycled muck the superstars and old time filmmakers keep dishing out – but like I said, may not be suited for all families.
