Humshakals is a comedy film starring Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Tamannaah Bhatia, Bipasha Basu and Esha Gupta. It’s written and directed by Sajid Khan.
The story is straightforward. As the name implies, it’s about people who look like one another. There are three pairs of look-alikes of Saif, Riteish and Ram. The first pair played by Saif and Riteish are rich guys. Their uncle played by Ram, who wants to take over the company try to make these two go mad by giving them a medicine that makes them act like dogs. They get locked up in the mental asylum, with their look-alikes (also played by Saif and Riteish) who end up taking their place at the mansion. Saif and Riteish realize what they’re uncle is up to and find out that their uncle has a look-alike too. They decide to use the look -alike to mess up their uncle’s plans of taking over the company.
There is unfortunately, no other way to put this, Humshakals is an awful film. I’ll be honest, I only watched the first half and about ten minutes of the second half. I felt that I had lost enough brain cells at this point and decided to stop. I’m not saying that you will never laugh while watching this film. You’ll probably laugh once, or maybe twice. I laughed when Saif and Riteish started acting like dogs the first time. After that, the film just went downhill and became unbearable by interval time.
What was I expecting? It’s a Sajid Khan film. Well, maybe I was expecting something because he also made Housefull and Housefull 2 which weren’t all that bad. Housefull was actually very funny. I did not see Himmatwala after seeing how horrified critics were from that film. And it seems like Sajid Khan is intent on continuing the legacy of horrible filmmaking with this rare gem. What I don’t understand is… what in the world were the actors on when they signed this film? Did Sajid serve them those coke and vodka parathas during the first film meeting? I sure hope so because I don’t see how anyone in their right mind could sign this film and promote it too.
I’m also disappointed with Tamannaah, one of my favorite South actresses, who made her debut in Bollywood with the one and only Himmatwala. She made some comment in a magazine about how surprised she is that she’s “still getting work after a film like Himmatwala.” Is she mad?! Wasn’t she aware that Sajid Khan made both films? I’m afraid she’s on her way to becoming yet another flowerpot role actress in the Bollywood film industry. She should have just stayed back in the Telugu industry where she was actually starting to get some roles that required acting like Endukante Premanta and Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu.
Something else that I don’t get is, how can this film become a ‘hit’. Seriously?!
I can’t recommend Humshakals to you, watch at your own risk.
BollyReview 