Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos Movie Review: Vir Das’s madcap spy-comedy has its moments

I checked. Watching chef Sanjeev Kapoor getting smacked across the face was not in my 2026 wishlist (Curious. Does the signature smile wipe off?). Nor was witnessing two “agents” covertly converse over sips of chai, in a morse-coded language made out of slurp noises. A bald, white guy strolls on the screen and says ‘Hi’ every time the film’s recently-Hindi-learnt Britain-brought-up protagonist pronounces ‘tum’ as Tom. It is safe to conclude that Happy Patel: Khatarnak Jasoos is a madcap, crazy, unabashed, absurdist, relentless ride. It doesn’t always make sense but then it never promised to. Like a constantly improvising comedy sketch, no gag is left unturned in the film, no line is without an undercurrent of humour and no minute is without youStandup comedian-actor Vir Das is Happy, the adopted son of two gay British secret agents. He wanted to follow his fathers’ footsteps but he failed the covert agency MI7’s exam seven times. Happy’s real calling, however, comes from the kitchen. In an early scene, we watch him assemble a mean sandwich, while doing ballet over a song whose lyrics declare: “I am alpha male.” Tiger, Pathaan and Kabir must order a takeout.In times of so much self-censorship, where each thought goes through multiple checks before being expressed, watching Happy Patel feels liberating. Debut directors Vir Das and Kavi Shastri go all guns blazing. The jokes come rat-tat-tat and although the humour doesn’t always hit the mark, the film believes that you miss all the shots you don’t take. There are both meta and Modi references and a certain actor gets to do action on ‘Pappu can’t dance saala’. Happy Patel is Delhi Belly (2011) on drugs and Madgaon Express (2024) if they all ultimately decided not to hide but to snort the cocaine.But how crazy is too much crazy? The film has a thin plot and quickly becomes a nonsensical sensory experience that jumps from one sketch piece to another. It is bold and experimental but with too many chemical mixes there is always a risk that the beaker might just burst. Happy Patel often trades coherence for wackiness. It gets desperate enough to resort to fart jokes. You laugh but you don’t know if you are laughing with the film or at all the absurdities that are unfoldin

Happy soon learns that he is of Indian origin (“That’s why that girl in college called me a Paki”). And no later he is assigned to Goa, on a mission to rescue and retrieve a white woman who is being forced to work in a factory on developing a formulafairness cream. Her tormentor is local donna Mama (Mona Singh) who is evil enough to dip a cutlet in tea before crunching on it. She also houses an inter-generational enmity with Happy and is eager to settle scores.