‘Welcome to the Jungle’ (2026) Movie Review - The Funniest Bollywood Comedy in Years

Welcome to the Jungle is the funniest Bollywood film in years. It's also probably the funniest Bollywood film you will see this year. It's loosely inspired by Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder, but it's even funnier—and, I think, a better film than Tropic Thunder. The film's success, I think, should be attributed to Neeraj Vora. He conceived the story and laid its blueprint before his unfortunate death. I suspect he even came up with most of the jokes here. While Farhad Samji wrote the complete screenplay and Ahmed Khan occupied the director's chair, Welcome to the Jungle still feels like the work of Vora, who used to write witty lines like this from Hungama: "M.A. kiya hai! B.A. bhi kiya hai!" It's not as if filmmakers can't evolve with experience. It's just that I would prefer to see a movie fully written or directed by Samji and Khan before giving them a pat on the back or a gold medal. For now, Welcome to the Jungle seems to owe its success to the late, great Vora.

The story follows flop filmmakers and flop actors who, unbeknownst to them, are dumped into a real jungle populated by real terrorists and real villagers, where they're supposed to make a flop movie to save a businessman from taxes—or something like that. You don't quite remember it, and you don't care either, especially once the jokes begin flying at you like bombs and bullets. This premise is, anyway, a springboard for metahumor. Welcome to the Jungle not only acknowledges its status as the third sequel with lines like "Welcome, welcome, welcome." It also, by casting Suniel Shetty as Yeda Anna, reminds you of Shetty's Yeda Anna in Awara Paagal Deewana as well as his Anna from Shaadi Se Pehle, who used to say, "Anna, 24 ghante chaukanna." Arshad Warsi, as Romeo, is literally Anna's partner-in-crime, but he's also the butt of a Circuit joke (see: Munna Bhai). And if you take Shetty, Akshay Kumar, and Raveena Tandon together, you will find yourself in a Mohra reunion.

What else? Majnu Bhai's famous "gadha-ghoda" painting is mentioned and updated. The movie mocks the military training montage as well as the tropes of older Hindi films that regularly featured a village in distress and elderly characters sobbing and uttering curses. By the end, even the Indian border comes into the picture, and two jets launch an attack on enemy territory. It's just too much—Welcome to the Jungle seems to want to spoof almost everything under the cinematic sun. This excess, however, is not a bug but a feature. Welcome to the Jungle is consistently in motion. It's overcrowded yet clear-minded, chaotic yet controlled, overlong yet competent enough to sustain interest and attention. After Baaghi 2, Khan once again enters the jungle, though this time he comes out a winner. I think I should be somewhat fair towards him because writing good jokes is one thing; executing them on screen is another. And if Vora's jokes, expanded by Samji, work so well, that's because Khan gets the timing of reaction shots almost perfect. The incoherent mumblings of Badi Bi (a terrific Farida Jalal) and the chaste Hindi of Murad Chacha (a pitch-perfect Kiran Kumar) are already uproarious. What elevates them further are the shocked expressions of the other characters, which appear at just the right moment.

Among them, Kumar's Rajiv Kohli is a hoot, which shouldn't come as a surprise considering Kumar's comedic talents. In Welcome to the Jungle, Rajiv first denies playing an Indian Army soldier. Then, whenever he threatens to quit the film-within-the-film, he's reminded why he signed the script (money, of course). Later, when he learns that Zatara (Jackie Shroff) is a real terrorist, Rajiv drops the facade of a savior, begs the enemy to leave him unharmed, and runs away to safety like a coward. Isn't this the story of most actors, celebrities, and influencers who project themselves as fearless liberals on social media only to change their stance the moment trouble comes knocking on their doors? The villagers pin their hopes on actors who merely know how to be heroes in front of cameras. It's difficult not to see a parallel with fans who make role models out of any Tom, Dick, or Harry—including actors—who have a lot of money and/or a lot of followers (not a lot of spine, however). I was surprised by how sharp the film's satire is and by its willingness to cut in both directions. Khan, though, doesn't dare to follow through on these implications because he, too, ultimately, like the flop actors in the movie, works for and desires moolah.

Hence, Khan restores and authenticates the heroic status of his characters, who end up fighting against Zatara and his men. Something else caught my attention here. For a second, go back to the scene where Rajiv begs Zatara to spare his life, for which he even offers to be in his service in return. Rajiv also tells Zatara he can do anything with his co-actors as well as the villagers as long as he is left unaffected. But when Rajiv realizes how cruel Zatara is and how brave the others are for standing up against him and his men, he decides to join the fight, which is filmed through a comic lens. It's tempting to read Rajiv as echoing parts of Kumar's own public image, where he was once regarded as a certain political party's poster boy. He did what he did to survive before dropping that image and distancing himself from a certain kind of nationalistic role and production, probably through certain realizations. This brings me to Welcome to the Jungle, a comedy that ends with an India that embraces Muslims without unnecessary hate, prejudice, or discrimination. Is this Kumar's attempt at fighting back? In that respect, Welcome to the Jungle bears a resemblance to Kesari Chapter 2: The Untold Story of Jallianwala Bagh as well. It's just that here, Kumar opens the curtain through the medium of comedy rather than drama.

If Welcome to the Jungle doesn't end up becoming a comedy classic, blame Khan for not pushing the material further. He, for instance, establishes Nainsukh's (Shreyas Talpade) blurry, blind vision but never pays it off by revealing that the movie he shoots consists of bad framing and empty spaces. When Rajiv boasts about how he would defeat Zatara in various ways and when, after learning the truth, the group, like frightened mice, quivers and discusses its next steps, the movie turns visually static and staid. Post-interval, Welcome to the Jungle arrives with too many rough patches that threaten to turn this comedy into a dour affair. I don't know why the filmmakers thought it would be a good idea to veer into melodrama. Also, Khan and Samji don't develop the jokes—they repeat them ad infinitum. Yes, it's almost impossible to understand what Badi Bi is saying, and yes, we get that Rajiv and Anna are meant to convey the ego clash between two big actors. Khan, though, fails to present these aspects with much variety or invention. There is a kind of sameness to them.

These gags, on the other hand, are so strong that they land even through repetition. It's hard not to laugh at them, even though you roll your eyes at some of the "fat person" jokes here. Another problem with Welcome to the Jungle is that it wastes many of its cast members, including Jackie Shroff, Disha Patani, Lara Dutta, Tusshar Kapoor, Daler Mehndi, Kiku Sharda, and Krushna Abhishek (Jacqueline Fernandez, however, gets some of the best lines here). They are almost indistinguishable from background actors. Still, as long as you are in the theater, you laugh uninhibitedly with joy. The movie doesn't give you enough time to dwell on its flaws—its fast and furious pace keeps the supply of humor almost consistent, so even the energy lost during the dull stretches is quickly regained. I would be lying if I said I didn't come close to falling from my seat thanks to all the merriment. I found myself welcomed by Welcome to the Jungle.