"Bollywood… someone should plant a bomb on it," Tigmanshu Dhulia, playing a disgruntled politician (a common prototype), says at one point.

That is how we feel after watching this puerile and unfunny comedy.

In 'Pati Patni Aur Woh Do', it is tiresome to have so many actors making faces into the camera, pretending they are having fun mouthing rapid gibberish about men in compromising positions and animals in jeopardy.

Don't believe them. No one is having fun here. How can any actor enjoy this trashy comedy of blunders in which the script thinks that putting the protagonist, Prajapati from Prayag Raj (trust me, that alliteration is cleverer than anything you will see in the film), through the grinder with three demanding borderline obsessive women is a whole lot of fun?

Ayushmann Khurrana, playing the poor man's Amol Palekar, suffers the indignity of being in the worst film of his career (so far… there is no telling about the mediocrity of Hindi mainstream cinema) with a woozy expression that suggests a nagging toothache rather than a domestic crisis.

The three heroines seem to be locked in a hamming contest, each more cartoonish than the other, none more so than Sara Ali Khan who plays a troublemaker named Chanchal Kumari. In her expressive salwar-kameez outfits and assertive manner, Sara seems to embody all that is wrong with this intended comedy: she and the film mistake brashness for burlesque and cockiness for comedy.

Rakul Preet Singh has an Allahabadi accent. She is a liberal Muslim with a penchant for saying much without saying anything.

Mudassar Aziz, who earlier directed 'Pati Patni Aur Woh' with Kartik Aaryan playing Everyman with a charming mix of muddle and cheekiness, is assailed this time with performance anxiety: every line, every situation has to be funny. A comedy can't be dictated by a wilful deliberation. Every scene in 'Pati Patni Aur Woh Do' seems manufactured for mirth.

It's like being at a stand-up comedy where the performers are reading their jokes from a teleprompter. Every character feels over-rehearsed, constantly wound-up and performing for the camera. None more so than Khurrana who claimed the film is for a family audience. Sure, Rakul Preet Singh bending down in a car towards Khurrana's lap is harmless fun. Two goons being mistaken for lovers… now that's really family stuff. All the three heroines being subjected to a sexist scrutiny in the guise of humour… absolute family fare. Ayesha Raza Mishra, a terrific actress, reduced to a series of manic monologues here, reaching into her blouse for money… wholesome.