Story: Shammi (Arshad Warsi) and Kedar Patel (Jackky Bhagnani) are like Lloyd and Dunne of Dumb and Dumber. They are bestiez who have grown up together. Kedar is the son of Mitesh Patel (Dalip Tahil) who is an event manager for weddings in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Shammi on the other hand is an ex-navy officer who is kicked out of the force thanks to his stupidity. While Kedar is obsessed with going to the U.S., after being rejected a visa because of his surname.
On a drunk night, Shammi suggests that he and Kedar leave for America on a cruise, even though they laugh it off in that instance, in a freak accident by the sea, Kedar and Shammi who are supposed to manage a wedding baraat on a cruise, leave without the baraatis only to lose their direction and land up in Karachi, Pakistan.
What entails is a series of stupid events as they enter forbidden territories of Taliban.
Star Performances: Arshad Warsi as Shammi Thakur is decent enough. He does what he is best at, excel at the comic timing but it's just that the content does not support much here. We have seen him do much more rib tickling fun in other films and I wonder what made him choose this.
Jackky Bhagnani as Kedar Patel tries his best to perfect the Gujarati accent and he does manage a good attempt. Only in a certain scenes, it becomes ham but overall he holds it well. His character is an understatement for dumb and he pulls it off just fine.
Lauren Gottlieb promoted this film with full swing but little did we know that she has only a blink and miss performance in the film. She essays the role of an Intelligence officer but other than her song Shakira, she hardly has any screen space.
Direction,editing & screenplay: Ashish R Mohan directs this film and well, I have a lot of complaints for him. To start off, the film's special effects look pathetic and the scene where Shammi and Kedar are caught in the sea storm, the special effects used are so weak that even TV serials have better ones.
Secondly, if it is a comedy film, one need not use background music that hammers into your head the cues for every upcoming joke. I am completely not in favour of those 'tings' and 'tongs' that play pre and post jokes as if watching a comedy show.
The first half in itself is a tiring ride with majority of the gags failing and so when the second half kick starts, you have already given up on the film. The curse of the first half continues in the second, leaving you wanting to see predictable ending. The film has an open ending and well, if they earlier thought of continuing with a sequel, the makers need to sleep on it and forget this dream.
Basically, the director tries nothing to save his already shoddy content as even the music has disappointing tracks.
The Last Word: Welcome to Karachi promises nothing but slapstick humor. There is not one moment in the film where you get a good laugh and sadly not even a satirical one. This proved to be a yawn-fest for me and I am going with a 4/10 for the film.
