After the debacle of Himmatwala, I thought Sajid Khan will not repeat the same mistake of testing Himmat of audience but Alias, he has proven me wrong. Humshakals is nothing but farcical potboiler marked by exaggerated performances, cheesy jokes and over-stretched song sequences. If you start questioning the logic and factual accuracy of Humshakals, you'll need valium instead of popcorn to survive the 159 minutes of the film. In the movie, Saif asks Riteish, " Will you take me for a ride " who responds in negative but i would like to request Sajid that please stop taking audience for a ride. In fact, the same can be said about his family as his sister Farha Khan made 'Tees Maar Khan' , Bro-in-law Shirish Kunder made 'Joker' & Sajid has made two in a row namely 'Himmatwala' n 'Humshakals' which all have been assault on our senses. Look at Sajid Khan's style of film-making :::: He packs in a bunch of old school PJs (poor jokes), hires three
good-looking women and three men, who triple up into various shapes,
sizes and hair-dos, to tickle us over two-hour-and-a-half-hours of
screen time.
Does it all add up to loads of fun and laughter? Well, not really.
However, if I could’ve hopped on to a time machine and gone back to
being a five-year-old or mastered the power to detach my brain from my
body and leave it at home, then probably the outcome would’ve been a
little different. The movie has enough moments to prove that Sajid is aware of his
drawbacks as in this movie he has put a scene where mentally challenged patients are made to
watch Himmatwala as a torture mechanism, I would like to
believe that Khan understands filmmaking isn’t making the best use of
skills. Filled with claptraps and puerile humor, the film does give you some engrossing & funny moments but they are too less & come too late as by that time, you are completely drenched with boredom.
SCRIPT & SCREENPLAY :: The credit for the story writing goes to Sajid Khan & the credit for screenplay writing has been given to Robin Bhatt, Sajid Khan & Akarsh Khurana which amuses me to no end. In fact, I find it more amusing than the movie itself. Three people have jointly penned down a flimsy storyline, wafer-thin plot which is nothing but a complete muddle. It’s plain mucky, if I put it politely. But Sajid Khan’s story has
offended me beyond wits and I have no intention of being kind here. I
understand the guy has no respect for cinema, and his idea of loving
films is delivering crud! I am disappointed at the lack of subtlety. The low brow variety of fun is not something I can pass off as
entertainment. In fact, cloning Saif & Riteish by tracking facial
expression points and adding a voice modulator chip to get theirs voices
correct was the most horrifyingly ridiculous thing I have heard. Coming to the storyline, Ashok (Saif) is a rich business tycoon based in London, who might be
the owner of a rich empire, but harbors the desire to become a stand up
comedian. Ashok’s friend Kumar (Riteish) is his only confidant, but
their hunky dory life is disrupted when Ashok’s Mama KANS (Ram) uses a
medicine and pushes Ashok & Kumar into a mentally challenged state
of mind. While they can’t recuperate, the same mental asylum shelters another
set of Ashok and Kumar who are the humshakals of the original pair.
That’s not all, when KANS frames them to inherit the business empire,
Ashok and Kumar find KANS’ humshakal too. The story moves forward and another set of humshakals is revealed. So
will the original Ashok and Kumar win over the original Mamaji is the
story.
STARCAST :: One of the few good things about the movie is its starcast who have performed their characters with aplomb but even they could not save this sinking ship. This is Saif Ali Khan's first foray into the genre of slapstick comedy and he has managed to do well. Of the three Saif Ali Khans, the effeminate one impresses the most because that’s where he appears the most natural. For the other two, we can’t help but get distracted by his Botox-frozen face, and an unflattering hairdo as Saif is not able to fit into the mould of stupidity that Sajid Khan creates for him. Of the three Ritesh Deshmukhs, the sane Kumar, who occasionally dresses as a girl is a treat to watch. His expressions and body language are spot-on, and was probably our only comic relief. His other two performances are equally faultless, displaying his superior comic talent. Although, the script he's given doesn't allow him to be genuinely funny, but he still manages to eke out a few microseconds of humour. Of the three Ram Kapoors, the best is Punjabi club owner, only because he’s fairly inoffensive and doesn’t spit out his lines. His take on the conniving uncle is decent, and so is his take on stage-3 OCD. The women are the perfect eye-candy. Bipasha Basu works hard to flaunt her toned long legs, while Tamanah flashes her body-tight dresses when not hosting telly show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’. And Esha flutters her eyelashes when not holding a bone. They don't get much screen time actually. Satish Shah is hilarious and manages to raise some guffaws. Nawwab Shah as scientist friend of Ram Kapoor has come out impressive. Chunkey Pandey manages to entertain but unfortunately he has been given only a few scenes to appear in.
TECHNICAL FINESSE :: Another, plus point of the movie is its music composed by Himesh Reshamiya. Although, the compositions are mediocre but still work wonders as they provide you the much needed respite during the dull proceedings. Two tracks namely "Callertune" & "By God" are peppy n pleasing to ears. The background music has been composed by Sandeep Shirodkar which is again average. The cinematography of the movie has been handled by Ravi Yadav who has done a fine job. He has ably captured some of the beautiful plush locales of London with finesse through the lens of his camera. The movie has been edited by Bunty Nagi who has kept the run-time to 159 minutes which is awfully long. There are lot of scenes which have been stretched and definitely needed to be chopped down. Sajid Khan has really disappointed & fared below average both as a writer as well as director with Humshakals. Lacking genuine-ity and filled with stupidity, my problem isn’t with the slapstick humor but with in-consistency of this movie. The film was absolutely flat in its first half and though post interval Sajid manages to emerge out of the self created chaos for a bit but the tapestry of litter is so elaborate, that Khan doesn’t quite navigate an easy way out.
CONCLUSION :: Humshakals is definitely the worst out of all the movies that Sajid Khan has made so far. Only go n watch If you have nothing else to kill time, also you can relax & enjoy some sleep during the first half of the movie as its only in the second half that movie entertains in bits & parts.
STARCAST :: One of the few good things about the movie is its starcast who have performed their characters with aplomb but even they could not save this sinking ship. This is Saif Ali Khan's first foray into the genre of slapstick comedy and he has managed to do well. Of the three Saif Ali Khans, the effeminate one impresses the most because that’s where he appears the most natural. For the other two, we can’t help but get distracted by his Botox-frozen face, and an unflattering hairdo as Saif is not able to fit into the mould of stupidity that Sajid Khan creates for him. Of the three Ritesh Deshmukhs, the sane Kumar, who occasionally dresses as a girl is a treat to watch. His expressions and body language are spot-on, and was probably our only comic relief. His other two performances are equally faultless, displaying his superior comic talent. Although, the script he's given doesn't allow him to be genuinely funny, but he still manages to eke out a few microseconds of humour. Of the three Ram Kapoors, the best is Punjabi club owner, only because he’s fairly inoffensive and doesn’t spit out his lines. His take on the conniving uncle is decent, and so is his take on stage-3 OCD. The women are the perfect eye-candy. Bipasha Basu works hard to flaunt her toned long legs, while Tamanah flashes her body-tight dresses when not hosting telly show ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’. And Esha flutters her eyelashes when not holding a bone. They don't get much screen time actually. Satish Shah is hilarious and manages to raise some guffaws. Nawwab Shah as scientist friend of Ram Kapoor has come out impressive. Chunkey Pandey manages to entertain but unfortunately he has been given only a few scenes to appear in.
TECHNICAL FINESSE :: Another, plus point of the movie is its music composed by Himesh Reshamiya. Although, the compositions are mediocre but still work wonders as they provide you the much needed respite during the dull proceedings. Two tracks namely "Callertune" & "By God" are peppy n pleasing to ears. The background music has been composed by Sandeep Shirodkar which is again average. The cinematography of the movie has been handled by Ravi Yadav who has done a fine job. He has ably captured some of the beautiful plush locales of London with finesse through the lens of his camera. The movie has been edited by Bunty Nagi who has kept the run-time to 159 minutes which is awfully long. There are lot of scenes which have been stretched and definitely needed to be chopped down. Sajid Khan has really disappointed & fared below average both as a writer as well as director with Humshakals. Lacking genuine-ity and filled with stupidity, my problem isn’t with the slapstick humor but with in-consistency of this movie. The film was absolutely flat in its first half and though post interval Sajid manages to emerge out of the self created chaos for a bit but the tapestry of litter is so elaborate, that Khan doesn’t quite navigate an easy way out.
CONCLUSION :: Humshakals is definitely the worst out of all the movies that Sajid Khan has made so far. Only go n watch If you have nothing else to kill time, also you can relax & enjoy some sleep during the first half of the movie as its only in the second half that movie entertains in bits & parts.
ROHIT SHARMA.
Follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/smgr105
rohitreview@gmail.com
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