Welcome 2 Karachi

Story: Shammi (Arshad Warsi) and Kedar Patel (Jackky Bhagnani) are like Lloyd and Dunne of Dumb and Dumber. They are bestiez who have grown up together. Kedar is the son of Mitesh Patel (Dalip Tahil) who is an event manager for weddings in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Shammi on the other hand is an ex-navy officer who is kicked out of the force thanks to his stupidity. While Kedar is obsessed with going to the U.S., after being rejected a visa because of his surname.

On a drunk night, Shammi suggests that he and Kedar leave for America on a cruise, even though they laugh it off in that instance, in a freak accident by the sea, Kedar and Shammi who are supposed to manage a wedding baraat on a cruise, leave without the baraatis only to lose their direction and land up in Karachi, Pakistan.

What entails is a series of stupid events as they enter forbidden territories of Taliban.

Star Performances: Arshad Warsi as Shammi Thakur is decent enough. He does what he is best at, excel at the comic timing but it's just that the content does not support much here. We have seen him do much more rib tickling fun in other films and I wonder what made him choose this.

Jackky Bhagnani as Kedar Patel tries his best to perfect the Gujarati accent and he does manage a good attempt. Only in a certain scenes, it becomes ham but overall he holds it well. His character is an understatement for dumb and he pulls it off just fine.

Lauren Gottlieb promoted this film with full swing but little did we know that she has only a blink and miss performance in the film. She essays the role of an Intelligence officer but other than her song Shakira, she hardly has any screen space.

Direction,editing & screenplay: Ashish R Mohan directs this film and well, I have a lot of complaints for him. To start off, the film's special effects look pathetic and the scene where Shammi and Kedar are caught in the sea storm, the special effects used are so weak that even TV serials have better ones.

Secondly, if it is a comedy film, one need not use background music that hammers into your head the cues for every upcoming joke. I am completely not in favour of those 'tings' and 'tongs' that play pre and post jokes as if watching a comedy show.

The first half in itself is a tiring ride with majority of the gags failing and so when the second half kick starts, you have already given up on the film. The curse of the first half continues in the second, leaving you wanting to see predictable ending. The film has an open ending and well, if they earlier thought of continuing with a sequel, the makers need to sleep on it and forget this dream.

Basically, the director tries nothing to save his already shoddy content as even the music has disappointing tracks.

The Last Word: Welcome to Karachi promises nothing but slapstick humor. There is not one moment in the film where you get a good laugh and sadly not even a satirical one. This proved to be a yawn-fest for me and I am going with a 4/10 for the film.

For friends who might be considering the film to be based on a novel idea revolving around two friends unknowingly getting into Pakistan territory facing the terrorists groups, the subject was recently seen in the award winning movie FILMISTAN (2014) too, that unfortunately couldn't reach a wider audience missing any 'star- value'. And exploiting the same plot in a much wackier manner defying every kind of logic right from its first sequence itself, WELCOME 2 KARACHI turns out to be a pretty ordinary project in comparison that ironically had a more entertaining 3 minute trailer than the entire 2 hour film to be straight.

Directed by Ashish R Mohan (post KHILADI 786), it begins with a lazy instrumental track used in the titles and then goes on offering all over the top, crazy or annoying insertions that desperately try to entertain the viewers without any major success. For instance, you get everything thrown in from a 3 IDIOTS inspired child birth, dumb looking terrorists groups and a good looking Intelligence agent to a weird change of identities of two Indians as Pakistani officers, introducing their extended families by news channels and then sending them back to India again with their fresh Indian Passports and disguised looks adding to the senseless confusion (Now who actually wrote that?).

But above all there is one particular sequence staged around the Indian Consulate in Pakistan showcasing a sudden, mindless cross firing from every country's consulate on that road (including China, USA, Israel and many more) which simply makes you wonder that what exactly the makers wished to portray here in the name of political satire or comedy?

The film's basic storyline moves with no specific direction and just keeps wandering into various sub-plots offering only a few interesting moments in its climax as the saving grace. The cinematography doesn't give you anything extraordinary to mention but the VFX are pretty amateurish right from the first sequence of a ship drowning in a sea-storm. Background score tries hard to generate some forced laughter whereas the soundtrack doesn't come up with even a single impressive track despite the presence of a terrific dancer Lauren (in an item number).

As a performer with superb comic timing, Arshad Warsi mostly (tries to) steals the show but Jackie comes up with a few witty one liners too at regular intervals making his presence felt. Yet their act together cannot be termed as something highly entertaining due to the lackluster script and its meaningless progression written vaguely. Lauren Gottlieb is simply there because of her eye-catching looks and dancing ability. Plus the supporting cast fails to make any significant impact on the viewer, particularly the actors portraying the roles of American officers dragging the film to the levels of a poor B-grade venture.

In all, apart from few entertaining dialogues and a somewhat engaging culmination, the film has nothing much to offer in terms of either comedy or satire. But then it also depends upon 'what exactly you consider to be too stupid or funny' as per your personal choice. Besides, friends who have already seen FILMISTAN are going to find some exactly similar sequences too as the one focusing on Cricket match between India and Pakistan.

Moreover I really doubt how sportingly the film would be taken by our Pakistani friends watching such silly depiction of their people, the city and the authorities in its various scenes.

Loved this movie, because it was very different from the run of the mill comedies that have slapstick humor and below the belt jokes. It was very 'decent' and hilarious. The second half was funnier than the first. Very creative story. Great acting by Arshad Warsi and Jacky Bhagnani. If you love to laugh and would like to watch a 'non-formula' movie - this is for you. The scenes during a cricket-match, in the courtroom, in an American prison etc. were very funny. Also, this movie was all about fun and showed no disrespect to anyone. Should have more movies like this one, with no run of the mill love stories, songs, violence and slapstick. It was original and fresh.

I voted it 1 because there is no less rating than ONE available on IMDb. The story line is ineffective and very boring in its own origin. Making no sense at all, this film just suggests how persistent India is on trying to prove Pakistan as a Terrorist Country and a NO GO area for the citizens of the World. What is shameful is the fact that despite knowing the entire track of the movies, Many Pakistani artists decided to take part in this conspiracy. In short this is not worth watching, It is neither funny nor close to anything like Reality. Pakistan is making much more sensible movies these days, Rush to wath'em in cinemas near your house. This Movie is only a shameful act of trying to get World audience against Pakistan. If you want to know real Karachi, Visit it. P.S with your full legal documents :D Off-course .

overall movie used such bad graphics effects, poor cinematography and lame script. it was first time that i left movie at interval. not worth watching if you do not enjoy bad jokes. it was a low budget movie, actors seems to do some over action, and story line is not even keeping you interested in movie, its just a time pass movie. but not worth it. Arshad Warsi was bit better in acting but overall the acting and script was so bad, i wish i had gone to watch some other movie. i did not enjoy this movie at all. This movie reflects negativity against Pakistan, and spread wrong message to the world, it wasn't even shoot in Karachi, but they showed as it was in Karachi. Also portrayed bad image of Pakistan as a terrorist country.