🎬 A Brand New Adventure
This film marks the comeback of the longest traveled comic series in Bollywood, which though retaining it’s trademark chaos, gets a new twist this time adding a layer of murder mystery alongside the usual masala fries Bollywood offers. Directed by Tarun Mansukhani and produced by Sajid Nadiadwala, this cruise-centric Bollywood slaughter depicts manifold case of wrong identity, fake heirs, and a surprise murder that agglomerates around the birthday taj of a billionaire.
Unlike its predecessors, this one takes a bold leap by trying two alternate endings in two different versions (5A and 5B) to allow fans of the series explore and feud over diff narratives.
🎭 Franchise Legacy: A Flashback That Doesn’t Require Googling
This franchise has been mega popular ever since the original film released back 2010. With overloaded cast offering nonsense humor, blunders, and chaotic climaxes, this franchise has seen a…
Housefull (2010): Introduced the core formula – bad luck, multiple love stories, and a series of coincidences strung together.
Housefull 2 (2012): Diocese increment and cast was simultaneously incorporated as fuel for familial comedic rivalries.
Housefull 3 (2016): Added more slapstick and physical comedy, with Akshay as a multilingual maniac.
Housefull 4 (2019): Took a reincarnation twist set in dual timelines.
Housefull 5A/B (2025): Now becomes the first Indian film to officially release with two parallel endings.
🧩 Storyline: Chaos on the High seas
All hell breaks loose when billionaire Ranjeet Dongriyal is brutally murdered on his 70th birthday cruise. He has a lot of sons, but “Jolly” is the name they chose to go with. During this, a three man detective agency comprising of (Akshay Kumar – Julius), (Abhishek Bachchan – Jalbhushan), and (Riteish Deshmukh – Jalabuddin) come into the picture. All of them seem useless at first, but play an important role in revealing the mystery.
As the ship prepares to dock, the scattered plot of the show becomes a medley of relentless chasing, impersonations, banging heads, frantic dance sequences, half-hearted arrests, and ridiculous outfits. Who is the one true heir? What do you think? Oh who could it be? Now guess who bumped off Ranjeet? And which Jolly is the one who pulled the trigger?
Depending on if you watch Housefull 5A or 5B, you get a different answer. Oh the debates am I right? This fuels more repeat viewings of the show.
⭐ Main Cast & Characters
Akshay Kumar as Julius aka Jolly 3 – Buffoonish yet effective, through the end. A hyperactive cop full of energy and interlaced with so many corny yet funny punches and one liners.
Riteish Deshmukh as Jalabuddin (Jolly 1) – The reliable comic backbone of the series, always caring and nurturing.
Abhishek Bachchan reprises his role as Jalbhushan (Jolly 2) in the Housefull series after his appearance in Housefull 3.
As pirates, Jacqueline Fernandez, Nargis Fakhri, Chitrangada Singh, Soundarya Sharma, and Sonam Bajwa quadrouple the trouble as the queens of chaos.
Chacha ‘Rival Uncle’ Patekar and Shroff play unbothered suspicious businessmen turned rival uncles.
Also appearing in both major and minor supporting roles are relied on cameos like Sanjay Dutt, Johnny Lever, Chunky Panday (a.k.a. Aakhri Pasta, duh), and even Fardeen Khan.
🏆 Box Office & Business Impact
Opening Weekend Highlights:
Net income in India for opening day sits at ₹22-24 crore.
Their growth prediction trend showed to be correct as they surpassed ₹50 crore net by Day 2.
Weekend in India set at ₹87 crore net and over ₹100 crore worldwide gross in a span of 3 days. Total net worldwide revenue as of the first weekend sits at ₹132 crore.
Significance:
Opened as the third highest grosser in 2025 (outperformed only by Chhaava and Sikander).
Arguably the most discussed release for the weekend due to their A/B format.
Increased by ticket sales as over 22% of viewers reportedly rewatched the other version in cinemas.
🧠 Analysis: The Housefull Formula + Murder Mystery
What makes Housefull 5A different?
Thematic Growth: A bit of mystery and intrigue is added without sacrificing humor which raises the intellectual level ever so slightly.
Narrative Gimmick: This approach of “dual-ending” gives the film some novelty as its never been attempted in a mainstream Bollywood comedy.
Bigger Set Pieces: Including portions shot on a genuine cruise ship, the magnitude feels globe-spanning, value-adding helicopters, chases, ballroom pandemonium, and even a courtroom-style revelation scene.
However, the film still succumbs to some of the more common critiques.
Lowbrow Humor: The dual-meaning jokes still dominate, shunning anyone who enjoys a more sophisticated form of comedy.
Underwritten Female Characters: Most of the women are present just for the sake of vanity rather than for any plausible character development.
Inconsistent pacing: Both cuts are slow, particularly in the middle section preceding the final plot twist.
💬 Public Reaction: Mixed But Buzzing
Fans say; “Total laughter riot,” “Akshay is back in form,” “Monologue from Jolly 1 is epic.”
Critics argue; “Loud, too immature,” “The franchise requires change, not this mindless repetition.”
Social media trends included memes on:
“How many Jollys is too much Jollys?”
“What if both versions are wrong?”
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