Anupama Chopra reviews Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos, the directorial debut of co-directors Vir Das and Kavi Shastri. Vir plays a bumbling 34-year-old wannabe secret agent who has failed the MI7 test seven times. Raised in the UK by his gay dads—both legendary agents—Happy travels to Goa to rescue a kidnapped British citizen, despite his real talents being cooking and ballet. Anupama finds the film a gleeful, good-natured comedy that takes potshots at everything from Bollywood tropes to fairness creams to colonialism, but without malice or the edginess of Vir's earlier collaboration with producer Aamir Khan, Delhi Belly.
The cast plays along beautifully—Mithila Palkar as an aggressive local dancer, Sharib Hashmi as a local fixer, and Mona Singh having a ball as uber don Mama. Imran Khan's cameo, his first screen appearance in nearly a decade, is guaranteed to make audiences smile. While there are stretches where the humour dips, Anupama calls this a welcome change from both gritty spy thrillers and glamorous globe-trotting ones—Happy is the distant desi cousin of Johnny English and Austin Powers, propelled by earnestness and Vir's profound sweetness.
