The first Housefull movie came out in 2010. Since then, the boys have grown into men but the antics remain juvenile. No cleavage passes without being peered down, no crotch survives an accidental bash. Homophobic gags are randomly added. The women are deliberately dressed in skimpy outfits to fit into schoolboy fantasies.

This comedy franchise is supposedly one of the most successful, but only the most dedicated fan will remember what went into the last four movies, except that Akshay Kumar, Riteish Deshmukh, Chunky “Aakhri Pasta” Panday and Johny “Bakul Patel” Lever are regulars. The villains and lovers are interchangeable.

Directed by Tarun Mansukhani and written by producer Sajid Nadiadwala, Housefull 5 begins with a murder. As a whodunit, this one uses the Knives Out/cozy mystery template sprinkled with crude humour and the kind of who-cares attitude by which dozens of people land up for dance numbers and then vanish from the luxury cruise ship where the story is set.

The ship is called Aiee, that lechy sound associated with Ranjit’s villainy. He plays a 100-year-old man who dies, leaving his fortune to his son from his first wife, while Dev (Fardeen Khan), the son from his second wife, quietly fumes.

Shreyas Talpade, Chitrangda Singh and Dino Morea play the company’s board members...