Nothing, absolutely nothing, is sacrosanct in Welcome to the Jungle. Language, age, objectification, racism, casteism, disabilities, to name a few. Oh, and body-shaming in all dimensions—height, width, depth—all bases covered. Everything is game to be the butt of a joke. So, every other scene in this true-blue equal opportunity offender has something problematic about it. And when it's not that, it is characters putting each other down—all with the good intentions of making the audience laugh.

They wear the answer to "Why they got involved with this film?" on their sleeve. "Money."

Okay, before I put the entire movie down. I began laughing out loud in one scene, and it became uncontrollable for a bit. Things were getting just way too silly. Also, once you accept that the idea is that the characters berating each other constantly, some of the scenes have witty quips. But, I've never found it in myself to spend energy on considering roasting as a form of humour.

Then there is the other regular slapstick fair—loudness, slurping, people getting shot in the buttocks, and so on. Oh, and characters talking over each other. All the time. To top it off, they go ahead and make it a feature. Character gets talked over ➡️ They lose track of what they were saying ➡️ They try to remember what they are saying ➡️ Other characters create more confusion ➡️ The first character remembers ➡️ And repeats the train of thought! I wonder how many extra minutes this non-comedy added to the almost 3-hour film.

Speaking of which, did they just shoot a series of "item" numbers? Sure, some of them will hit the clubs regularly. But, I could spot three left over after an "explainable" one and an end-credit one. How do I know they had extra songs in their kitty? Well, they have one inexplicably follow what I am calling the "explainable" one, one before the end-credit one, and one…hold your breath…during the interval! Not just before or just after the interval, right after "INTERVAL" shows up on screen.

It is remarkable in this mayhem and some-15 oddly-written characters that you can recall some of the actors. Every one other than Akshay Kumar share screen space almost equally. His act is as insufferable as ever. Arshad Warsi stands out because he doesn't shout all the time. Jacqueline Fernandes might stay in memory a little longer than usual because her character owns how dim she is made out to be. Once you give in to the quirks written for Farida Jalal and Kiran Kumar's characters, you appreciate their performance. Also, we know Jackie Shroff is barely changing expression between films. Is he not changing makeup either? Having said that, I am not sure how much we can judge the acts, when the dubbing is off so often.

Other than that, the writing has at least one self-referential element for many actors. As usual, this feels like lazy writing though I guess forcing it in the story requires some skill too. Given that then, it is surprising to have a "Fate versus Choice" debate thrown in.

Equally commendable was the self-aware pre-end-credit-item-number item-number. Yes, as much as I complained about it. But more importantly, they wear the answer to "Why they got involved with this film?" on their sleeve. "Money." Either they get a tax write-off, or they earn money selling a film that they know is terrible. Win-win for them. Lose-lose for us, isn't it?

- meeta, a part of the audience