The Shaukeens Movie Review
The Shaukeena
Joining the ranks of 1980s remakes this year Such as Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s Khubsoorat and Sai Paranjpye’s Chashme Buddoor; The Shaukeens is an adaptation of Basu Chatterjee’s 1962 classic comedy, Shaukeen.
While the original had the trio of Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutt and AK Hangal holidaying in Goa, the 2014 version directed by Abhishek Sharma will feature Annu Kapoor, Piyush Mishra and Anupam Kher living it up in Mauritius.
The three old men consist of Lalli) a sadly married man played by Anupam Kher, KD, a bachelor played by Annu Kapoor and Pinky a widower played by Piyush Mishra. All of them are frustrated with their sex lives and are looking for excitement and a way to get away from their boring family lives. Driven by this, they plan a getaway. After ditching their first location Thailand because of the reaction from their families, the three lecherous men settle for Mauritius.
Enter pretty young Ahana played by Lisa Haydon, who is the owner of the villa the three rent out for their holiday. Having ended a long term relationship with her boyfriend because he made fun of her work, that is to recycle materials and make them fashionable; she returns to the villa cutting short a road trip. The three men are over the moon to see the dusky bombshell in their midst and the rest of the film revolves around their attempts to woo her.
While in the original the trio come off as shy, good natured, innocent and therefore harmless; the trio in the 2014 version by Tere Bin Laden director Abhishek Sharma come off looking lecherous. A shoe-shop owner, social worker and shopkeeper; the three men from Delhi—a city already notorious for badly behaved men; only strengthen this stereotype by lusting after women throughout the film and continuously objectifying the fairer sex.
There is also a sub-plot to the movie. While the original film featured Mithun Chakraborty, the remake features Akshay Kumar, playing himself, or at least playing Akshay Kumar—an alcoholic star desperate to win an award and hit the 100 crore benchmark. The role is peppered with Akshay constantly poking fun at his own work in Bollywood so far.
Akshay is in Mauritius, waiting for Ranjit Basu played by Subrat Dutta, who is the director who supposedly has received many national awards and will help Akshay make his dreams come true.
What unites the two parallel plots is the leading lady played by Lisa Haydon who is a die-hard fan of Akshay. So, while she is thinking of ways to woo Akshay, the three men are thinking of ways to woo her. They even use her crush on Akshay to their advantage. While this might be funny for a select group of men, the humor is lost on the rest of the audience.
Although the cinematography, exotic locales, cameos by Abhishek Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor, Suniel Shetty can be taken as plus points, the film which revolves around these three Shaukeens is not for everyone.
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