Review: The Shaukeens

Cast: Akshay Kumar (Akshay), Anupam Kher (Lali), Annu Kappor (KD), Piyush Mishra (Pinky), Lisa Haydon (Ahaana), Rati Agnihotri (Mrs. Lalwani), Abhishek / Kareena / Dimple Kapadia in special appearances

Genre: Comedy

Direction: Abhishek Sharma

Production: Ashwin Varde, Murad Khetani, Akshay Kumar, Trilogic Digital Media Limited, Cape of Good Films (Production company)

Written By: Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sai Kabir

Screenplay by: Tigmanshu Dhulia

Edited by: Rameshwar S Bhagat

Cinematographer: Chaudhary Amalendu

Music: Yo Yo Honey Singh, Hard Kaur, Vikram Nagi, Arko Mukherjee

Release Date: 7^th November, 2014

Language: Hindi

Duration: 2 hours 05 minutes

The Shaukeens, a tragedy in the name of a comedy movie – poor theme, poor storytelling, poor sense of humour and hugely talented actors just getting wasted. What Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor and Piyush Mishra are doing in such a movie, sheer wastage of talent. A remake of 1982 movie by the same name, and this 2014 version is directed by Abhishek Sharma.

The story is about three men in their sixties: One of them a bachelor KD (Annu Kapoor), another one Pinky, a widower (Piyush Mishra) and the third one Lali (Anupam Kher) having a spiritually-oriented wife (Rati Agnihotri). All three of them are lecherous in nature and have only lust in mind. They decide to go to Mauritius and have some fun in life. There they land up in Ahaana’s (Lisa Haydon) house. All three of them try to floor Ahaana in their own manner when they learn that Ahaana is a die-hard fan of Akshay Kumar and she would do ‘anything’ for the person who makes her meet Akshay Kumar. Akshay is playing himself and shooting in Mauritius. All three of them in their own peculiar manner get Ahaana meet Akshay hoping that she would return the favour. Akshay takes a dig at his own self through various dialogues in the movie.

Is there a story at all in this movie to be reviewed? Can the bachelorhood / widower status of someone be made fun of?  Is the longingness to have a partner in life, desiring to have a company of someone special wrong? Absolutely not, then why the whole set of feelings need to be addressed through ‘lust’? Does the genre of comedy require lot of dialogues with double meaning cues? How to tolerate terrible actions from veterans of the industry?

The Shaukeens is definitely not for Movie-Shaukeens.

Rating: 0.5 /5