The hilarious ‘Hera Pheri’ is back and hilariously enough, so are the tousled trio from the prequel. But Neerajbhai, where did the spontaneity go? Vohra who’s been Priyan’s understudy for a while now, looks to have pulled off every leaf from his mentor’s book of ‘slapstick’, alas there’s no originality.

And like Priyan, there is no style in the slapstick, no controlled interplay of gags and emotion and that means it’s only another funny flick ridden with forced humour and quirky rip-offs from the first one. In fact every time this film makes you laugh it does so by revving up some fond innuendos from the first flick. But that’s something you realise only in retrospect (not while in the rhapsody), creditably for the director.

Sure it’s crammed in farce and muffles (mostly of the not so funny kind) and kicked as you might be as you guffaw at the antics of the ‘uniquely silly’ threesome, yet at the end of this ride, it doesn’t quite turn out the enriching experience of the initial. The director’s effort is evident in following every rule of the original but there’s just no novelty in the display this time round.

So the characterization remains the same as you remember. Akshay, Sunil and Rawal are the same poverty-stricken roomies who are re-ensconced in that web of chance, risk, mistrust, one-upmanship and ultimate retrieval. But this time around the three seem to be willing thugs rather than an unlucky set faced with an insurmountable crisis. Sorry, but no sympathies for thieves, and definitely not drug peddlers!

Their success or failure this time round is hardly of any essence, since they only end up looking like a group of novices trying to grab some easy cash. Whatever happened to that all-important buzzword- motive (a noble one please). Whatever happened to Akshay’s ailing mother, Sunil’s helpless love for Tabu and the looming creditors of Rawal.

Yes, they did manage to throw in the Rimmi Sen angle, whose brother (Rajpal Yadav) gets duped by the three getting the poor family in a mess with a split tongued Don (Sharat Saxena). And just so Shetty doesn’t have to look loveless, there’s also a side track involving a con woman-bar dancer (Bipasha Basu) and some lost diamonds from the previous flick.

So as Raju, Shyam and Baburao are duped by Bips at the start, posing as a chit fund owner, the three have to return to their chawls and struggle to make ends meet by selling off their remaining possessions one by one. Richness beckons again in the form of some antique guns, packets of raw heroin (all next door) and some circus equipment called ‘Kuk-doo-Koo’!

As the ordeal gets tougher with the entry of more and more ludicrous characters who are all vying for the same stuff, the trio exhibits their now well developed chemistry and comic timing. Until all that good spirit is dampened by a climax in a circus house where a man in a gorilla jumpsuit goes around creating havoc. That’s when the gimmickry stops being funny.

Sadly, the only time the director succeeds in bringing some reminiscence of the original is when he blatantly lifts scenes from it and spreads it generously throughout the film.

Looking at the bright side though, if this movie bombs, we won’t have to sit through ‘Phir Phir Hera Pheri’ a few years from now. They sure have their designs on it, if the last scene is any indication.