Cirkus is a supreme dissapointment from the first frame – its neither entertaining, nor boasts of any credible performances. Period! Inspired from Comedy of Errors which seems to be a favorite of Bollywood film makers ( Angoor, Do Dooni Chaar), this new refurbished Cirkus boasts of a typical Rohit Shetty brand of cinema – ensemble cast, lavish sets , too many colors and subplots. But writing is insipid, performances are lukewarm and surprisingly, there is a complete disregard to humor this time which ironically makes a Rohit Shetty film so watchable .

Twins Roy and Roy (Singh) and Joy and Joy (Sharma) get separated at birth. Coincidentally, the two pairs get adopted by two different sets of parents — one Roy is deliberately paired with another Joy and the other Roy with the other Joy in Ooty and Bengaluru, respectively. This borns out of an experiment by a doctor who believes in nurture than in nature. Now one of the Joy’s has mastered the art of holding naked electric wires which has everyone applauding him for an encore. He earns his living professionally, but whenever his body touches an electric wire, his twin in another city feels the shock as the current flows through his tissues.. Chaos ensues when one pair visits Ooty and both the pairs land up in trouble and confusion.

This terrific premise which was handled with such elan in Gulzar’s Angoor starring the veterans Sanjeev Kumar and Deven Verma is completely nailed to death in this boring regurgitation , with both Ranveer Singh and Varun Sharma looking completely out of place. Ranveer, a gifted actor, in specific looks disinterested in every frame, and his attempt to enunciate laughs falls flat. Not to entirely blame him, the jokes are insufferable and gags lacks punch. Adding to this milieu, you have so many characters popping up in every frame that at one point of time, I lost count ! Shetty desperately tries to mine laughs through characters names (Momo Bhai, Mango Chiki, Poison Dada ) which simply adds to your misery . Dialogues too are childish – when one character says ” Mango Chiki“, another one says ” Mango Chiki nahi, Kaju chiki hai”. Background scores are replaced with old bollywood songs and slo motion sequences which shows the desperation by makers to salvage the show, but nothing holds your attention even for a moment to comprehend whats going on screen.

The film also boasts of two heroines ( Hegde and Jacqueline) who are just eye candy, adding zero value to the proceedings. Veterans including Sanjay Mishra, Johny Lever , Tiku Talsania, Vrajesh Harje, Mukesh Tiwari and Brijendra Kala who live and breathe comedy are given inane lines, and none of their scenes can be termed as mildly comical or amusing. Its such a terrible waste of talent this time that you feel for these solid actors who ham their way all along.

We are attuned to the brand of Rohit Shetty’s entertainment ( Golmaal Series, Bol Bachchan) which can be termed as slapstick yet it entertains you to the fullest. With Cirkus, both he and Ranveer reach a new low. Its a shame because the material was there, and so as the breed of talented actors. But Shetty just fails to make things work this time.

Near to the intermission, a solid cameo from Deepika Padukone pops up in the form of an electrifying song Current Laga Re , (along with Ranveer )which brightens up the screen for a while. That was the only time when I had a smile on my face I think..

I am going with 1 out of 5 for Rohit Shetty’s Cirkus, currently running in theatres. While I had high hopes to end this year with a rocking time, Cirkus is an excruciating bore to be honest. Rent out a DVD of Angoor and watch it at home instead please – that will be a bang of your buck!