All accidents that you can imagine with such a scenario happens—the wig is pulled off accidently, one of them wears the wrong hair, a bad guy (Chunky Pandey, unbearable) falls in lust with one of them and so on.

Make-up removes, the four sneak out to explore the nightlife, where, one of them corners a woman in a bar, charming her up with flattery and then finally landing a slap for asking her `rate’. Cut to sleazy item song with lyrics like Main Namkeen and so on.

Their girlfriends are either cry-babies (Riya Sen) or romance-obsessed (Celina Jaitely). The third one is the boss (Neha Dhupia), who on falling in love, changes to pastel-coloured sarees and weeping on the office chair; the fourth (Sayali Bhagat) is torn between her love and her disapproving father (Paintal).

Somewhere along the way arrives a `joke’ where the villain is about to rape Shreyas’s character. This elongated scene which makes fun of this heinous crime, honestly ought to have been curtailed by the Censor Board. For some perplexing reason, filmmakers find great comedy in such a premise, as was also seen in Golmaal and Apna Sapna Money Money. You really want to ask these filmmakers that wonderful clichéd Hindi film dialogue–aapke ghar mein maa-behen nahin hai?”

Paying Guests’s ending is a copy of several rehashes of the Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron stage scene. Here, everyone from Ravan to Spiderman make their presence felt in the middle of a Mughal-E-Azam play.

Of the cast Shreyas Talpade is the unbeatable scene-stealer. His comic timing makes you grin despite yourself, and he has perfected the art of doing comedy without exaggeration. Javed Jaffrey also does very well. Ashish Chaudhary and Vatsal Seth are among the so-so performers. The cute coupling of Johhny Lever and Delnaz Paul brings about a few laughs; Paul’s character especially, has some of the best-written lines.

Paying Guests impresses technically; cinematography is competent and sound design is excellent. Music by Sajid-Wajid is ho-hum. Dialogue veers from the typical crudely humorous ones to some genuinely funny one-liners. Director Paritossh Painter who directed Dhamaal (2007), sticks to the same sensibilities, experimenting a bit with the cast.

Sample this film if you‘ve enjoyed the likes of Dhamaal and Golmaal; but don’t even consider it if you like your humour even marginally refined.

Verdict: One-and-half stars