At a time when content is king, an out-and-out comedy like Housefull 4 has its work cut out. Housefull 4, on its part, does a credible job with an all-star cast of Akshay Kumar, Kriti Sanon, Riteish Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Pooja Hegde and Chunky Pandey, among others. The film, directed by Farhad Samji, manages to tickle your funny bone whilst making sense.

As pretty evident by the trailer, the story is divided into two ages - 1419 and 2019. Harry (Akshay Kumar), Roy (Riteish Deshmukh) and Max (Bobby Deol) own a salon and are in a debt of a don. To repay the amount, they decide to fall in love with some millionaire girls and they successfully do so. Harry gets these minor flashbacks from what he thinks is his previous birth.

The year is 1419. Bala (Akshay Kumar) is a spoilt prince of a kingdom neighbouring Sitamgarh ruled by a womanising King (Ranjeet). The King had three daughters Madhu (Kriti Sanon), Mala (Pooja Hegde) and Meena (Kriti Kharbanda). Bala is expelled out of his kingdom by his father (Parikshit Sahni) due to his bad behaviour.

I don't know how much of Housefull 4 has been directed by Sajid Khan and how much by Farhad Samji, I do know they both have failed miserably in making a watchable film, let alone funny. We won't talk about the plot as the trailer and the promos have given away what the film is about. Every film based on reincarnation bases its narrative on love, subterfuge, rebirth and revenge.

Akshay has already dished out two hit films this year -- Kesari and Mission Mangal -- and he returns with yet another release. But unlike those two patriotic films, this one is a mindless comedy with reincarnation as its central plot. Directed by Farhad Samji, Housefull 4 also stars Riteish Deshmukh, Bobby Deol, Kriti Sanon, Pooja Hegde and Kriti Kharbanda.

Housefull 4 travels down the same road of diminishing returns as other comedy franchises (Golmaal, Masti). This one, the fourth in the series, actually goes back even further in time to justify its existence. While Golmaal Again (2017) laced its comedy with supernatural elements, Housefull 4 opts for the reincarnation formula, that wonderful scripting contrivance that allows errors made in the previous life to be fixed in this one.

At times you go in for the first day first show of a film with zero expectations, merely a curiosity as to what lower depths it could plumb in the name of entertainment. Housefull 4 hurtles south with such a clarity of purpose and desperate urgency that you can review it with just "eye roll" gifs than go hunting for suitable words.

One Word Review... HouseFull 4: DISAPPOINTING. Tries too hard to make you laugh, but fails miserably... Bad writing, terrible direction, over the top performances... Weakest film in #HouseFull franchise.

It's circa 1419 at a placed called Sitamgarh, 3 couples Rajkumar Bala Dev Singh (Akshay Kumar) - Rajkumari Madhu (Kriti Sanon). Riteish Deshmukh (Bangdu Maharaj) - Rajkumari Mala (Pooja Hegde) and Dharamputra (Bobby Deol) - Kriti Kharbanda (Rajkumari Meena) had to part ways due to a conspiracy by Suryabhan (Sharad Kelkar).

Harry (Akshay Kumar), Max (Bobby Deol) and Roy (Riteish Deshmukh) have to pay back a vast sum of money to a gangster in London. So they decide that marrying the three daughters, imaginatively named Kriti (Kriti Sanon), Pooja (Pooja Hegde) and Neha (Kriti Kharbanda), of a wealthy man is the best get-rich-quick scheme. So far, so Housefull. But this time Batuk, or Batook, Patel is absent.

Not that I thought Housefull 4 to be a serious film on India-China relationship, but never expected it to be this absurd either. Well, as Housefull franchise's brand ambassador Aakhri Pasta (Chunkey Pandey) says, 'I am joking.' This is exactly what the trailer promised it to be. Right in the beginning, while punching a co-actor, Max (Bobby Deol) thunders, "Aaj mera fast hai isiliye thoda slow maara (I punched you slow because I am fasting today)," and the audience immediately recognises the setting.

In its fourth edition the Housefull franchise ensures that it takes its brand of over the top and mindless humour forward. Actually, it's more like the reverse, since it rewinds back six hundred years to the 15th century. But first, it's London of 2019, where Harry (Akshay Kumar) is a hairdresser who alternately has bouts of memory loss and flashes from his past life. Max (Bobby Deol) and Roy (Riteish Deshmukh) are his brothers.

It is in the fitness of things that pigeon poo gets generous play in Housefull 4, a reincarnation-themed romp that is as crappy as any Bollywood comedy can get. The only A-lister in the cast of this brazenly brainless film, Akshay Kumar, is at the receiving end of the bird droppings. The first time a pigeon poops on him, he goes "yuck". Not to worry, a character tells him airily, "kabootar yuck" brings "good luck".

This is Housefull 4. Four! There shouldn't have been even a single one, but there are four of these in the cinematic universe! Sigh! It takes a special kind of talent to write such utter non-sense for a hundred and forty-five minutes. But Sajid Nadiadwala (producer and story), along with Sara Bodinar (story and screenplay), Tasha Bhambra, Sparsh Khetarpal and Sajid Khan (he's been credited for screenplay despite everything) have that in abundance.