Hindi
Houseful 3……Happy hours!
MUMBAI: Houseful 3 follows Sajid Nadiadwala’s Houseful (2010) and Houseful 2 (2012), both of which saw varying degrees of success. This instalment too follows the same pattern of many characters filling the screen with silly gags and actions that are meant to keep the viewer occupied. In short, it is a leave-your-brain-at-home film that does not require a script.
Boman Irani is a kind of shipping tycoon based in UK with three daughters, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri and Lisa Haydon who he assumes to be simple, sanskari girls living according to their names: Ganga, Jamuna and Saraswati. He has some superstition about women in his family marrying because there are instances of bad happenings in the aftermath.
However, unknown to Boman as well as to each other, all three sisters have a man in their life. These are Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan and Riteish Deshmukh. These three pretend to be in love but their real aim is to pocket many millions of wealth that vests between these three sisters.
Boman has sought the help of Chunky Pandey, playing Aakhri Pasta in all the films, who comes dressed as a fortuneteller and predicts that the marriage of each girl bodes ill for Boman, who will die the moment the each sister’s man sets eyes on him, or steps into the house or utters the first word to Boman, respectively.
For the comedy and buffoonery to happen, most of the characters have to be under one roof. The girls and guys devise a plan. Akshay, an aspiring footballer, comes over on a wheel chair, he is incapable of stepping down or walking so Boman is safe on that count. Abhishek, dreaming of becoming a rapper, enters the house as a mute so there is no question of uttering a word to Boman. Riteish, who is raring to become a formula one driver, pretends to be blind; he can’t set eyes on Boman and hence even the third bad omen is ineffective.
Now enter three more suitors for these girls in Nikitin Dheer, Sameer Kochhar and Arav Chowdhary. Just out of jail, they are presented as Boman’s choice for the girls. Jackie Shroff enters the scene. An ex-don of Mumbai, Jackie is also just out of jail and decides to meet his underling, Boman in London. When jailed, Jackie had transferred Boman along with all his wealth to London. He also agrees with Boman’s choice of boys.
For Dheer, Kochhar and Chowdhary, the hitch is that though Boman and Jackie prefer them for the girls, but the girls love Akshay, Abhishek and Riteish. After some more one-upmanship duels between the two groups, the good have to win over the evil. The idea is toraise some laughter and, hence, the battles have to be won with wit, not hand-to-hand fights.
The film does not have to adhere to a particular script. It resorts to gags to follow a loosely woven story and anything can be turned or twisted at will. On that count, Sajid and Farhad do a fair job. The film has passable musical score despite a number of lyric writers and composers; however, the choreography is executed in an entertaining manner. Photography captures lush London locations very well.
As for performances, Akshay Kumar, playing one with a split personality, excels in this film with his varied expressions and deadpan timing. Abhishek and Riteish play the perfect foils. Jacqueline, Nargis and Lisa add to the glamour quotient. Boman and Jackie do well. Of the three villains, Nikitin towers over the rest while Kochhar and Chowdhary are okay.
Houseful 3 is a fair entertainer to hit the cinemas after a long draught. The film caters to all kind of audience and should manage a decent stay at the box office.
Producer: Sajid Nadiadwala.
Directors: Sajid, Farhad.
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Abhishek Bachchan, Riteish Deshmukh, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Lisa Haydon, Boman Irani, Jackie Shroff, Chunky Pandey, Nikitin Dheer, Sameer Kochhar, Arav Chowdhary.
Hindi
Remembering Gyan Sahay, the lens behind film, television and advertising
From a puppet rabbit selling poppadums to Hindi cinema, he framed it all.
MUMBAI: There are careers, and then there are canvases. Gyan Sahay, the veteran cinematographer, director, and producer who passed away on 10 March 2026 in Mumbai, had one of the latter. Over several decades in the Indian film and television industry, he turned lenses, lights, and the occasional puppet rabbit into something approaching art.
A graduate of the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Sahay built his reputation as a director of photography across a career that stretched from the early 1970s all the way to the digital age. He was the kind of craftsman who understood that a well-composed shot is not merely a technical achievement but a quiet act of storytelling.
For most Indians of a certain age, however, Sahay will forever be the man behind the rabbit. His direction of the iconic long-running television commercial for Lijjat Papad, featuring its now-legendary puppet bunny, gave the country one of its most cheerfully persistent advertising images. It was the sort of work that sneaks into the national subconscious and takes up permanent residence.
His big-screen credits as cinematographer include Anokhi Pehchan (1972), Pagli (1974), Pas de Deux (1981), and Hum Farishte Nahin (1988). In 1999, he stepped behind a different kind of camera altogether, making his directorial debut with Sar Ankhon Par, a drama that featured Vikas Bhalla and Shruti Ulfat, with a cameo by Shah Rukh Khan for good measure.
On television, Sahay was particularly prized for his command of multi-camera production setups, a skill that made him a go-to technician for large-scale shows and reality programmes. In an industry that has never been especially patient with complexity, he was the calm hand on the rig.
In later life, Sahay turned teacher. He participated regularly in masterclasses and Digi-Talks, often hosted by organisations such as Bharatiya Chitra Sadhna, sharing hard-won wisdom on cinematography, the comedy of timing in a shot, and the sweeping changes brought by the shift from celluloid to digital. He was also said to have been involved in a project concerning a biographical film on Infosys co-founder N.R. Narayana Murthy.
Tributes from the film industry poured in following the news of his passing, with colleagues remembering him as a senior cameraman who served as a rare bridge between two entirely different eras of Indian cinema. That is, perhaps, the finest thing one can say of any craftsman: he kept up, and he brought others along with him.
