Expectations

An ensemble comedy consisting of talented comedians is the safest options as per the film-makers. They feel if they have multiple comedians, there are chances that the movie, despite of a weak script will manage to crackle its audience. Many film-makes have tried this formula out of which very few like David Dhawan or Priyadarshan have succeded, as rest of all failed miserably. 'Santa Banta Pvt Ltd' has been in cans for a long time and finally manage to get its theatrical release. The name and get up of BomanIrani and Vir Das looks appealing, but besides that there is no expectation attached to the film. This might work in favour of the film as the audience might get surprised by the humorous content attached with the film.

Story

'Santa Banta Pvt Ltd' is a story revolving around Shankar Roy (Ayub Khan), an Indian ambassador in Fiji. Shankar Roy gets kidnapped under mysterious conditions due to which, R.A.W chief officer Hanumant Singh (Tinnu Anand) assigns his junior officer Arvind (Vijay Raaz) to find secret agents Jai and Veeru who were last seen disguised in form of Santa and Banta. Arvind fails to locate Jai and Veeru but bumps into two villiage bumpkins Santa (Boman Irani) and Banta (Vir Das). Arvind fools his boss and sends Santa and Banta to locate the Indian ambassador in Fiji. Santa and Banta are assisted by local officers Akbar Allhabadi (Sanjay Mishra) and Quinnie Taneja (Lisa Hayden). All the clues lead Santa and Banta to Shankar Roy's wife Kareena Roy (Neha Dhupia) and his best friend Sonu Sultan (Ram Kapoor). What happens next is what the entire film is all about.

The 'Glitz' Factor

Well, except for few scenes featuring Boman Irani and Vijay Raaz, there is nothing comical in this bland and over the top drama. Boman Irani looks cute as Santa and manages to do his part despite of a badly written character. Vijay Raaz and Sanjay Mishra lend good support.

The 'Non-Glitz' Factor

The story is totally outdated and totally predictable. The stale treatment makes the screenplay worse where nothing concrete happens. The movie just keeps on going on and on without any twist or turns. It’s so predictable that even a small kid can tell what's going to happen in the next scene. The makers tried to make it on lines of Shahrukh Khan's 'Badshah' or Mithun's 'Heeralal Pannalal', etc. According to the makers this movie is an out and out comedy. The comical scenes seemed forced, stale and boring. The movie takes lot of time in establishing the dozen characters. The characters seemed fake and hams to the fullest. The climax is highly irritating and cheap at times. The music fails to go with the flow of the film. The songs are loud and reminds you of the 90s era where the songs keeps popping up randomly with the lead actors wearing bold matching colour clothes. Background music is a torture to your ears.Director Akashdeep Sabir gives a good ensemble of comical actors who despite of their expertise in this genre, fail to tickle your funny bone. The treatment is so outdated and jarring that it seems like an impossible task to sit through this film. Vir Das failed to connect with his character and has hardly anything to offer. Neha Dhupia is repetitive. Ram Kapoor is misfit. Lisa Hayden, Ayub Khan, Johnny Lever, Tinnu Anand, Ranjeet, Vrijesh Hirjee and many others were wasted.

Final 'Glitz'

Except for few mild gags, there is nothing left in this bland film which ends up being atrociously hamming.