- Date of Release: 15 May 2026
- Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance
- Language: Hindi
- Watch On: Theatres Only
Pati Patni Aur Woh Do
Introduction
At a point in the new Hindi film Pati Patni Aur Woh Do, the spiritual sequel to the 2019 film Pati Patni Aur Woh – I absolutely cracked up, giggling and laughing even as the film had otherwise brought crickets in my auditorium. This wasn’t the case of any particular scene that was ticklish, or even a particular character that had aced his comedy. It was more about my defence mechanism taking over – so much so that my braincells (and ears) were the b*tt of all jokes, a love affair that has successfully continued this week too. In other words, it was me laughing at my own state – finding humour in my state of helplessness, even while keenly awaiting for the atrocity to end. Imagine this – outdated storyline, unfunny gags that one would associate with a show like Comedy Circus, and a loud, louder, loudest dose of physical comedy that would literally put the background score of Kanguva (2024) to shame. It was the kind of a ‘Black Friday’ that is the new norm in the life of a film critic – something wherein you sacrifice your sleep for an early morning show, knowing fully well that a film will disappoint you, only to be even further disappointed by the end product. We deserve a Nobel Prize at this point, I mean really!
Story & Screenplay
Written by Mudassar Aziz and Ravi Kumar, Pati Patni Aur Woh Do has an early and unintended fascination for RRR (2022), even whilst you are introduced to the protagonist Prajapati (Ayushmann Khurrana) – an officer working for the forest department who is given a heroic introduction even as he successfully tames a VFX-driven beast. To give him company is his wife-cum-reporter Aparna (Wamiqa Gabbi), and her friend Nilofer (Rakul Preet Singh) – the characters almost having a hangover of the previous Pati Patni Aur Woh Film minus the infidelity. Prajapati knows how to tame a beast, but for a change, he isn’t a womanizer. In fact, the writing treats him as a saint – almost willing to be the boyfriend of his ‘other’ best friend Chanchal (Sara Ali Khan), just so that she could survive a bout of honour killing due to caste differences at the hands of a local politician (Tigmanshu Dhulia), whose son Sunny (get the pun?) is Chanchal’s love interest. Phew, I wonder how this screwball comedy was approved in the first place!
The writing wishes to reintroduce the Govinda brand of comedy from the 90s, literally with traces of unintended humour that you would find in a film like Prem Aggan (1998). So while there are random instances involving an annoying boss who keeps fingering his ear – with the word ‘kaan’ (ear) being mistaken for something else, there are random gay jokes literally being flung at you. In one, you have a character swaying at a corridor in office – a la an extension of the one in Pyaar Kiya Toh Darna Kya (1998) that put his ‘swaying’ onset on the wind, or the one in Prem Aggan wherein you see a character being called Gay Mehta instead of Jay Mehta. Tch tch….how is this even funny?
The s*xual jokes don’t end there – in a scene, you see two characters being arrested for being gay – even as a character exclaims on how he is aware on which ‘kulfi’ (icecream on a stick) they have been eating. Or even the one wherein a woman whose sari flies away even as she falls in a man’s arm just in time for the wife to notice them. Or even wherein two male characters are papped in the most unintended uncompromising position. Or a woman bending down only for it to appear to the wife that she is indulging in oral s*x. But this is a family film isn’t it?? This, even as the setting changes from a ‘Moyo’ room to an underconstruction building to random long drives with respect to the principal characters. No one is cheating, except the writers to the audience.
There is a definite idea of attempting a chaotic Priyadarshan through all the confusion that the situation presents itself, with regards to the characters. But what do you even do when the situation itself remains sketchy? How would you justify the drama jostling between cities, characters shouting on the top of their voices, the comedy being as flat as a pancake, and the only giggles in the auditorium reserved for my helpless state. I mean you have a local politician on the lines of Ramadhir Singh from Gangs Of Wasseypur – except that ‘Sanima’ (Cinema) is reduced to ‘Sunny’, a loud-mouth aunt of a character that continues to annoy you, a moral police who can’t stand PDA, a heartbroken character who begins doubting his own love, and the four principal characters who are entangled in a drama that is increasingly predictable and obnoxious, both at the same time. It literally begged me to ask for consent to laugh.
Special brownie points for the random-a*s climax that brings even a ‘Bhediya’ (wolf) in the mix, with every character screaming over the other in order to make you laugh. I wondered on why the writing remained non-committal as opposed to going all out, almost reducing the climax into individual set-pieces of Comedy Circus. At this point, comedy was the dead horse that was repeatedly beaten up to spring in any life. And like Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video (2023) – a random monologue about a social issue springs out of nowhere before an ending that was happy for the characters and brain-dead for the viewers like me. Well to be fair, some people enjoyed the gags (I could hear them laughing here and there even as I felt paralyzed) – so maybe it is me who has a Vitamin deficiency or something?
Dialogues, Music & Direction
The dialogues are unfunny and cringe-worthy while also being dated with the kind of comedy being attempted. Also in many ways, the lines were written as a proof of concept for a film set in a tier 2 city – with phrases like ‘Aji Sunte Ho’ (Hey Honey, Listen Up) being injected. Even the wordplays like Nalli-Nihari Loafer or Nilo- Furrrrr, felt like few of the several instances that I facepalmed. The music is average but the thing that remains worse is interjection of songs that not only feel abrupt but similar to B-grade music videos. The BGM is terribly poor, trying so hard to complement the brain rot comedy on offer.
The cinematography oozes of the frames from the 90s, almost having no novelty factor other than wanting to gently titillate the viewers with a hovering eye on the low-cut attires of women. I mean does the film not require even a remote streak of a emotions through the frames. Either the characters are horny, or they fake being horny, or they are implied to be horny – all richly wrapped up in frames that want you to chuckle.
The editing pattern felt more like a reel cut than a film cut, randomly cutting away from one scene to another, and from one gag to another – something that increasingly reminded me of several comedy shows on television. Director Mudassar Aziz misses the mark by a countrymile. I must admit that I have previously found some of his comedy films to be enjoyable like Khel Khel Mein (2023) or even Happy Bhaag Jayegi (2016). But one thing that he must introspect is the brand of comedy that he has been attempting. It is extremely outdated and unfunny to say the least, something that extends to his directorial style too. The ‘meter’ needs to be controlled in a comedy film, just so that the gags aren’t loud and always land. But if the idea is to be loud in order to be funny, then you know that the comedy will never land. That is what was the main issue here, in a piece of direction that is insufferable!
Performances
The performances are loud and ineffective by the members of the cast. The only actors that is fairly effective in their tryst with comedy are Tigmanshu Dhulia, Durgesh Kumar and Guneet Singh who somehow put a smile on my face despite such cringe-worthy lines handed over to them. You know that there is a briefing issue when even a brilliant actor as Ayesha Raza Mishra is loud and annoying as hell. Vijay Raaz is a fine actor but his character is almost similar to his role in Vicky Vidya Ka Woh Wala Video.
There are so many posts about Sara Ali Khan being the ‘surprise’ of the film with a wonderful affinity for comedy. Well, she felt ordinary and flat as ever to me, largely being unfunny with her character. Rakul Preet Singh can never convince me that she is a character from UP named Nilofer. It just seemed like a Bandra girl airdropped in a fresh setting in UP, with her trying to get the accent right at the start, only to abandon the same midway. Wamiqa Gabbi is a far more talented actor than the kind of slop she has been featuring in lately. And what do I even say about the once-upon-a-time Mr ROI Ayushmann Khurrana. He literally hams his way through the character here, desperately and unsuccessfully trying to find laughter. And if one has gone from a progressive film like Shubh Mangal Zyaada Savdhaan (2020) to this gay-joke-flinging film in 2026 – then I have nothing more to say! He has totally lost the plot and how, even as this film can best be described as Ayushmann Khurrana’s Kis Kisse Pyaar Karoon.
Conclusion
Pati Pati Aur Woh Do is the “so bad that it is bad” kind of a comedy that gets louder and louder by the minute. But the comedy in itself is so outdated and unfunny, that I literally giggled out ‘loud’ at my state of helplessness. Two minutes of silence for my ears too – oh, that pun landed beautifully! Available in a theatre near you.