Happy New Year relies on a few ubiquitous gimmicks that are dangerously close to their expiration date: there’s the meta Bollywood reference (in this case, entire passages of dialogue are lifted from earlier Shah Rukh Khan films for comic effect), and running gags involving gay characters (ace composer Vishal Dadlani and Gangs of Wasseypur director Anurag Kashyap make a cameo in a cringe-worthy sequence involving a merry-widow corset and a feather boa).