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The Masti series began as loud, unapologetic adult comedy, a Bollywood answer to guilty-pleasure cinema that wanted to be crude, colourful, and very obvious about it.
Early on, the films found an audience who liked their jokes blunt and their plots thin. That shock-and-laugh formula worked for a while because the industry and viewers were less fussed about representation, and the films leaned on nostalgia and punchlines that rarely asked for nuance.
But times change. Audiences do too. What once read as “edgy” increasingly looks lazy: recycled double entendres, women shown mostly as targets or decorations, and jokes that prize shock over wit. At the same time, Indian viewers have more choices, sharper adult comedies, web shows that balance raunch with character, and voices calling out casual sexism.
So the real question isn’t just whether Masti can make people laugh anymore. It’s whether a franchise built on objectification can meaningfully exist in a moment that demands smarter, less harmful humour.
The debate isn’t binary; some will always enjoy the mindless silliness, but the cultural tolerance for tired misogyny is shrinking. That tension is what makes the conversation around Mastiii 4 and the whole series worth having.
Also Read: FlippED: Should We Take Offensive Comedy Seriously?
Put simply: Masti still has fans, but it’s running on nostalgia and old shortcuts. Its brand of comedy, loud, crude, often at the expense of women, doesn’t age well when viewers expect jokes that punch up, not down.
Commercial success can mask that gap for a while, but cultural relevance requires evolution. If the franchise wants to stay relevant, it needs better writers, actual character depth, and a comedy that lands without humiliating people.
Raunchy and respectful are not opposites; they can coexist. Reinvented with intelligence and consent-aware gags, Masti could be fun all over again. Otherwise, it’ll remain boxed as a throwback: sometimes amusing, mostly outdated, and increasingly hard to defend.
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Sources: Contributors’ opinion
Find the blogger: Katyayani Joshi
This post is tagged under: bollywood comedy, adult comedy debate, masti franchise, misogyny in films, objectification in cinema, film critique india, modern audience tastes, regressive humour, pop culture analysis, indian film discourse, cinema and gender, outdated comedy tropes, bollywood review, cultural relevance debate
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