Despite daddy David Dhawan’s expertise in farcical comedies and a team of talented actors known for excellent comic timing, débutante director Rohit Dhawan has chosen to make ‘Desi Boyz’ a predictable family drama, failing to make it an interesting watch.

Story line
Hit by recession in London and scared of losing their loved ones, two college friends -- Jerry alias Jignesh Patel (Akshay Kumar) and Nick Mathur (John Abraham) -- decide to become male escorts.

Jerry has a small, orphaned, school-going nephew Veer (Master Virej Desai) to look after, while Nick wants to marry his girlfriend Radhika Awasthi (Deepika Padukone), who dreams of a fairytale wedding, a great honeymoon, and a wonderful house to live in after marriage.

As a result, jobless Jerry and Nick end up dancing at bachelorette parties among semi-nude women to get paid.

Life seems all fun until Nick’s girlfriend Radhika comes back from vacation in India and discovers their clandestine career. Jerry also fails to pay his nephew’s school fees and can’t save him from being sent to foster home.

Frustrated by the turn of events, Nick blames Jerry for forcing him into the profession and asks him to leave his house and life.

Nick tries to win Radhika back and out of nowhere, gets help from the most unlikely source, Radhika’s father (Anupam Kher), who comes to London to visit his daughter.

Meanwhile, Jerry goes back to college to complete his graduation so that he can earn enough money to get his nephew back home. In college, he finds love for his teacher Tanya Sharma (Chitrangada Singh).

But life isn't going to be smooth sailing as exams loom for Jerry and Nick gets competition from Ajay (Omi Vaidya), a lawyer-friend of Radhika's.

Performance wise
John, Chitrangada, and Deepika look dull and repetitive in their acting. Anupam Kher fits well into the role of a sensitive and ideal father-in-law.

But the film finally belongs to Akshay, who scores brownie points for a classic comic act blended with ability to hold dramatic moments with great ease.

Deepika and Chitrangada didn’t have much to do in the film, but tried their best to make their presence felt in the movie.

The editing is seamless and the songs by Pritam are hummable and sit well with the entertainment-quotient of the film.

Bottom line
The movie tries hard to make the otherwise shadowy profession of male escorts look glamorous and glorious, and we shouldn’t be surprised if a bunch of students passing out from colleges aspire to become male strippers after this movie.

Those looking forward for a stress buster can leave their minds at home and watch it for piping hot camaraderie between Akshay and John and plenty of fun.