The Shaukeens

the movie is really one of those where they have an interesting concept, but really no concrete storyline. i guess even the concept is not novel and is stolen from the old shaukeen. so, anyway, the movie starts with a concept, plays with it till the interval, and then you can see it is running out of steam; so then they complete change it and go in a totally different direction. i liked the first half, it had some good laughs, and some witty dialogues. you can't call it a well made movie, but if you go with friends and are willing to let your hair down, i guess you can unwind a bit. my wife liked the second half much more. annu kapoor gives a good performance; anupam kher is really too overexposed and overacts. the third shaukeen i have seen for the first time, but he does a good job too. akshay kumar's willingness to make fun of himself is refreshing. lisa hayden looks good but her character is not a convincing one.

The Shaukeens is a story of three oldies - KD, Lali and Pinki. These lusty old men plan a trip to Mauritius after it becomes difficult, rather life-threatening for them to get some action in Delhi.

In Mauritius the trio stay with a young fashion designer Ahana (Lisa Haydon). Ahana, a huge Akshay Kumar fan, is nursing a broken heart.

Akshay Kumar (playing himself), is an alcoholic superstar desperately wanting to win the National Award. He is stuck between a Bengali director who gives him tips on method-acting and a secretary, hell bent on getting his superstar boss focus on Rs.200- cr club.

When Akshay Kumar comes to Mauritius for a shoot, Ahana falls in love with him. The three oldies, needless to say, are already in love (read lust) with Ahana. In the end, who gets whom and what, is all that The Shaukeens is about.

The Shaukeens is a remake, rather recreation of Basu Chatterjee's 1982 Shaukeen starring Ashok Kumar, Utapal Dutt, AK Hangal, Rati Agnihotri and Mithun Chakraborty. Directed by Abhishek Sharma, The Shukeens boasts of pace and crispy dialogs. Tigmanshu Dhulia's tight screenplay and flawless act by the three veterans make the film immensely watchable.

3 friends are in search of a lady partner to satisfy their ever long lust. So they try various things from local farmhouse to bangkok, and gets landed in between which is Mauritius, and story unfolds in unexpected way and finishes in unexpected way too. Rest is suspense.

Acting is undoubtedly very good by all actors involved. Akshay is no suspense as he is shown in all promos. How he is involved in this story is very unexpected too. Technically film is very good, music is super good. Costumes, sets are lively and colorful. Dialogs are very good too. But after watching the film you will feel that you actually liked the film and something remains missing.

That something can be attributed to unpolished script. First half is senseless and one might wonder what was achieved in first half ? If one watches second half only then also that will have same effect.

Improvisation could have been done in first half like how they come to Mauritius can be made like a chase and run thriller. Guys chasing a gal , gal goes to Mauritius and these guys lands there too but meets another gal to fall for. Bit more speed was needed in first half taking the climax to much higher speed.

Overall it is one time watch for your money.

The movie was among the few I was waiting to watch mainly because of the three brilliant oldies. After a brief spell in the first half where it I was intrigued at what's gonna happen it all fell apart in the second half. The pace of the movie somehow fell drastically. Nothing unexpected happened and you will feel it was like that could have been the worst possible ending.

Akshay was brilliant to begin with but as the movie progressed he showed signs of Chandni Chowk to China once again. The actress around which the whole movie revolves did not show any signs of acting and at times it was irritating to see her say everything in the same manner. Oh boy, how much she could do with some acting lessons.

It is a one time watch hardly and that's only because of the sheer respect towards the senior citizens of Bollywood.

Talking about the so called remake status of THE SHAUKEENS first, its actually not a remake of any original Hindi project, since even Basu Chatterjee made his 1982 classic SHAUKEEN taking all clear inspirations from an English film titled BOYS NIGHT OUTreleased in 1962. In addition it also cannot be called as a true remake as the latest version follows a much bold path both in visual and verbal terms. Plus it also adds another fresh plot interfering into the script hampering its original enjoyable spirit to a large extent.

Honestly I was pretty excited to watch THE SHAUKEENS due to its three veterans and the exclusive feature that its story-screenplay-dialogues were written by one of my favourite writer-actor-director Tigmanshu Dhulia. But unfortunately post a fine first hour and a few surprising insertions like a (wasted) cameo of Rati Agnihotri and a song from Anu Malik, the film turned out to be way below expectations, mainly because of the deliberate twists added in its second half. So till intermission it remains a good time pass with a few enjoyable sequences and performances covering up the shortcoming of an overstretched screenplay.

However as the second half begins, the film starts walking on an entirely different (and downward) path, completely hijacked by Akshay Kumar himself, who was actually supposed to be there in a cameo, but probably changed his mind being the co-producer of the film too unexpectedly. Akshay begins well taking potshots on the Industry and its 'crore clubs'. But then starts taking too much space on the screen ignoring the three main heroes of the film quite strangely. Perhaps the makers forgot that the USP of this particular film happened to be the three middle aged men searching for a girl and not anything else to say it all.

Anyhow due to this big miscalculated move, the film fails to pick up in its later reels, ending on another flat note all of sudden and surprisingly has many vulgar dialogues too which frankly were not expected from both Tigmanshu Dhulia and the director Abishek Sharma who superbly directed an all clean, entertaining comedy movie called TERE BIN LADEN in the past. Also I would like to mention here a particular sequence in the film, wherein before going to Malaysia, Piyush Mishra is shown coming out of Delhi's OSHO WORLD shop situated at ANSAL PLAZA holding a five CD set of "Sambhog Se Samadhi Ki Ore" in his hands. Now its quite evident that many in the country as well as abroad still associate OSHO with the word SEX showing their uneducated and underdeveloped state of mind quite clearly. But why Tigmanshu and Abishek added this specific scene into the film is really doubtful and it strongly makes me think that, "Did the two talented film-makers intend to make fun of those unaware section of people who still ignorantly associate the mystic master OSHO with SEX or they both themselves are a part of those silly mindsets still playing with the same ridiculous ideas about OSHO even in 2014?" I will definitely try to find the answer to this question if I happen to meet them ever in the future but anyway returning back to the film, its soundtrack offers a mixed bag with two catchy and two awfully rotten numbers like "Ishq Kutta" and "Alcoholic"…………what kind of songs were these really, I failed to understand. Placed in New Delhi and Mauritius, its cinematography doesn't offer anything great and the same can be said about its background score and editing too which actually makes the film a bit lazy and stretched unnecessarily at regular intervals.

So what's there in the film that it can be watched once? - It's the cute acts of three fantastic actors Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor and Piyush Mishra playing the three sex-starved men looking for girls. Anupam plays it subtly but brilliantly (once again) along with Piyush expressing it wildly (he is a delight to watch). But the lead here is taken by Anu Kapoor enacting the bachelor Casanova with a bindaas touch, being their 'all knowing' leader of the expedition And the three put up a great show for the viewers in their scenes together. Lisa Haydon is just fine lacking that sensuality even in her almost none clothes and Cyrus Broacha is good but doesn't get much to do in his limited scenes post interval.

Concluding the write up, yes you can watch THE SHAUKEENS once for the three veterans, but I personally wished to see them much more in the film than presented. In other words, I was there to watch these three exceptionally talented actors in the film from the first frame to the last and not any big actor-producer coming in to take all the limelight, ruining it all. And I really wish THE SHAUKEENS was made focusing on the three Shaukeens only and not anything else just for the sake of it.

Hence give it a try if you wish but in case you haven't seen the earlier Basu Chatterjee's highly inspired but classic version of 1982 then go for it as a must and have a great time with Ashok Kumar, A. K. Hangal and Utpal Dutt playing the dirty trio.