Cast: Vinay Pathak, Neha Dhupia, Rajat Kapoor, Naseeruddin Shah

Dir: Saurabh Shukla

Star: *

This can't be a co-incidence. I have watched Vinay Pathak in at least three bad movies this year and in each of them, he plays the na ve simpleton, who is yet to learn the ways of the world.

It is obviously the case of playing safe and typecasting an actor in a kind of character that might have enthralled the audience eons ago. Who doesn't know that even the best of dishes served every day gets repulsive?

A still from the movie 'Pappu Can't Dance Saala'

As you might have guessed by now, Vidyadhar Acharya (Pathak) is a simple man from Benares who has moved to the big bad city of Mumbai to work as a medical representative.

He hates his boisterous neighbour, Mehak (Neha Dhupia), a dancer, who is struggling to make it big and in the meanwhile, loves partying. The two end up staying together in one apartment and predictably start liking each other.

Neha Dhupia puts in a confident performance as an ambitious starlet who's ready to do anything to get to the top. Certain scenes are watchable, especially the ones where the easy chemistry between Dhupia and Pathak is evident.

Also, the scenes in Benaras are captured well. But the story lacks spunk and novelty. The amateurish script, apart from a few other laughable things, wants us to believe that a dancer appearing in a music video is an instant celebrity.

Naseeruddin Shah in a small role is delightful as ever. Rajat Kapoor plays a choreographer, but his character is sketched so haphazardly that his efforts seem wasted.

While the first half is tolerable, largely thanks to Neha, the second half moves at a sluggish pace.

I don't know if Pappu can dance, but surely Pathak can do far better than playing the same kind of role again and again and ruin our evenings, and perhaps also his career in the process.