Rating: *

The sole purpose of making laughathons is to transport you to ha-ha-land for the next two hours. The last few years has witnessed a barrage of comic fares and brainless comedies exploding on the Hindi screen -- some of them genuinely funny, most of them trying so hard to be funny.

Choreographer turned director B.H. Tharun Kumar's Rafoo Chakkar is yet another attempt at making you laugh. On paper, the concept had the potential to tickle your funny bone, but its celluloid translation is a put-off. Sure, you smile at the inane jokes at places, but the second hour falls to abysmal levels.

Problem area? Scripting! Writer Ikram Akhtar's screenplay fails to maintain consistency from start to end. Everything's well laid out in the initial portions. In fact, the sequence of events that compel the lead men, in their early 20s, to marry women almost double their age keeps you entertained. But post-interval, the screenplay gets boring and humdrum. Sure, no one's asking for logic and common sense, but how about jokes, entertainment and amusement?

Munnu (Aslam Khan) and Pappu (Yudhishtir) are spoilt brats. Julie (Nauheed Cyrusi) and Millie (Nisha Rawal) are equally spoilt. In fact, all four are not interested in getting married and when forced by their respective fathers, run away from their respective homes.

While on the run, Munnu and Pappu meet and get attracted to Julie and Millie, not realizing that they are the same girls with whom their father (Ananth Mahadevan) had fixed their marriage. Another twist comes in the story when Julie and Millie are saved from a bunch of hooligans by Kokila (Archana Puransingh) and Koena (Mita Vashisht), two middle-aged sisters who hate men and never want to get married.

Kokila and Koena's father, who is on his deathbed, wants to see them married. He even incorporates a clause in his will that if they don't get married before they turn 45, the property should go to the trust. Kokila and Koena have only 24 hours to find the boys, get married and save their property because they turn 45 the very next day.

Munnu and Pappu land up at Kokila and Koena's house to rob them, but get overpowered by the sisters. This leads to their arrest and eventually marriage to the two sisters. All hell breaks loose.

Very few comedies have the ability to make you smile from start to end. That's one of the reasons why most comedies have proved tragedies this year.

A joke here and a gag there isn't enough. And no director or actor, howsoever skilled and proficient he/she may be, can rise beyond the script. B.H. Tharun Kumar's direction falters for this reason. You do smile at times, but it has more to do with the witty one-liners (dialogues: Raghuvir Shekhawat) than the situations in the storyline.

On the music front, the title track at the start is foot-taping and well executed, but the absence of promotion takes its toll. K. Rajkumar's cinematography is passable.

Aslam Khan makes a sincere attempt. He seems more confident this time. In fact, his comic timing, at places, is just right. Yudhishtir tries hard as well and does reasonably well, but the rawness shows at several points. He needs to work on his expressions. Nauheed Cyrusi acts well, but Nisha Rawal has a long way to go.

Archana Puransingh is in comfort zone, since she's not new to comedy. But, surprisingly, Mita Vashisht looks out of place. Shakti Kapoor and Sadashiv Amrapurkar are wasted. Tinnu Anand is the best of the lot. Ananth Mahadevan is good.

On the whole, Rafoo Chakkar is a lacklustre attempt.