Patiala House is a predictable yet feel-good masala film that lacks depth and subtlety to make it truly memorable. Add to it a musical score by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy that glides but never soars.

The best thing to come out of Patiala House is Akshay’s portrayal of a person who has let his dreams go. He and Nikhil Advani as the director are what make the film a good three-hour watch. But it could have been much better if more attention had been paid to character development: a family this size was last seen in Hum Saath Saath Hain and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun. The storyline is too Bend it Like Beckam-friendly and its conflict feels a tad overblown. Still, the fact that Patiala House has bombed at the box-office should not stop anyone from watching it despite the obviousness.

Baoji (Rishi Kapoor), a controlling force in the extended Kahlon family, is mentally still living in the Punjab like all filmi immigrant dads (hint: Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge. Blissfully, here we are spared the mandatory girls-in-shalwar-kameez-on-swings scenes). He is quite an enterprising leader of his community, fighting against racism and always at loggerheads with all things British, despite choosing to live on foreign shores.

His elder son Gattu (Akshay Kumar) has to abide by his dictum and forsakes his dreams of playing cricket for England since Baoji would not have his son represent the goras. Some 17 years later, when the middle-aged Gattu gets a chance to be a part of the England team again, encouraged by Simran (Anushka Sharma), all hell breaks loose.

The screenplay by Nikhil Advani and Anvita Dutt Guptan tells the story well. There is a brief prologue that establishes the racial discrimination aspect of the plot and gets it out of the way without dwelling on it unnecessarily. The brief flashbacks establish Gattu’s rise and fall in cricket.

With the joint family setup, a family wedding becomes the centre of attention where more than a dozen characters are introduced without much ado. Comedy, dances and hysterics make way for some touching dramatic moments between father and son, and a too-obvious cricket match where England fights against all the teams in the world except India. Hmm, I wonder why?

Nikhil is definitely better this time and Patiala House has more life than the director’s previous two outings: Salam-i-Ishq and Chandni Chowk to China.

Dimple Kapadia as the long-suffering wife looks the part but an actress of her calibre is wasted in this role. The legendary Rishi-Dimple jori should have been exploited much further. Rishi Kapoor as the authoritative patriarch figure refrains from making this role a carbon copy of the many similar ones in Bollywood films, and stands out with flawless body language and expressions. Akshay Kumar underplays his character with absolute authenticity and gives one of his best performances in recent times.

Anushka does not look too different from her character in Band, Baja & Baraat. She looks radiant and bubbly, and is in sharp contrast to an aging Akshay. The Anushka-Akshay jori does not sizzle as the two-decade generation gap is painfully obvious. Still, she has a well-defined presence in the film and is convincing as Simran. Hard Kaur is entertaining, Santosh Thundiyil’s cinematography is crisp and Remo D’Souza as choreographer does a neat job.

The title track, Laung da Lashkara, with Mahalaxmi Iyer, Hard Kaur and pop singer Jassi is full of energy and Punjabi flavour. Tumba Tumba is a qawwali-styled song by Hans Raj Hans and is again entertaining. On the whole, the music is neither bad nor out of this world — time for Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy to take a break and get back to the basics. We loved them that way.