Here is the review for the movie The Shaukeens. Watch out this space for more updates!
Rating:1.5/5 Review By:Saibal Chatterjee Site:NDTV
The trouble with The Shaukeens is that both the characters and the film as a whole hit all the wrong buttons in a bid to generate mirth.
Akshay Kumar, who also doubles up as the narrator, is the only one in the cast who seems to have had a certain degree of genuine fun. The rest merely go through the motions.
The leading lady of The Shaukeens ditches her boyfriend because, in her words, "he made fun of my creation and called it stupid and obnoxious".
That is it: those are the very adjectives that would best describe this unfunny, eminently avoidable film.
Rating:3.5/5 Review By:Saurabh Dwivedi Site:India Today
Piyush Mishra as Pinki, a mousy spice merchant, leads the pack with his super act, Akshay Kumar, is the surprise package of the film. Akshay as a superstar trapped in his own image is hilarious. He should take up more films like The Shaukeens.
Lissom Lisa Haydon as Ahana looks sexy yet sweet but needs to work on her acting skills.
Abhishek Sharma, who gave us the delightful Tere Bin Laden, does a great job with The Shukeens too. The film, despite its theme does not get crass or vulgar even once, which is why it will get a larger audience.
Rating:2/5 Review By:Manjusha Radhakrishanan Site:Gulf News
The laugh-out-loud moments are few in this film and the majority of them come from Akshay Kumar’s role. As an alcoholic, bored superstar he excels. Watch this if you are a fan of Akshay Kumar and can turn a blind eye to some blatant objectification of women.
Rating:/5 Review By:Sneha May Francis Site:Emirates 24/7
But, among all this mayhem, it’s Akshay Kumar who walks away with the top honours for poking fun at his reel image. He’s got a sense of humour unmatched among his peers. “All I’ve been doing so far is climbing onto helicopters, and climbing off it,” he quips. At another, he’s desperately trying to please a Bengali filmmaker, so he can abandon the 200crore-club and win a national award instead. He's also seen slyly, swigging from his hip-flask, establishing an obvious disconnect from his real-life-teetotaller-image.
After creating the phenomenal ‘Tere Bin Laden’, Abhishek Sharma goes on to prove that he’s got a funny bone unrivalled in Bollywood.
Rating:4/5 Review By:Subhash K Jha Site:IANS
This is Akshay’s best performance in recent years. He adds considerably to the film’s comic quotient. As do the three veteran actors with performances that go beyond the bawdy.
"The Shaukeens" is a rib-tickling rumbustious sleaze-less comedy that Basu Chatterjee is likely to smile at. It’s bound to make you laugh out loud.
Rating:1.5/5 Review By:Shubhra Gupta Site:Indian Express
It is Akshay, playing himself, or rather a superstar like himself with a thing for alcohol and a sudden yen for actorly respectability via a National award, who is the best part of the film. This is the star getting away from the things he pokes fun at—“same helicopter se latakna, same car chases” etc which lead to the `200 crore club’”, and finding his funny bone. But those jokes get stretched, and finally we stop even faintly sniggering, like we did at the occasional haha-inducing lines.
And how much crassness can be stuffed into a film? After its third mention, I stopped counting the times ‘tharki’ and ‘buddhas’ were said in the same breath.
Rating:1.5/5 Review By:Mohar Basu Site:Koimoi
The Shaukeens was promised to be a film as cute as the original but sadly, it’s just a mundanely flat and an extremely dull film. With only Akshay delivering the limited laughs of the film, it is a painfully tedious exercise of tolerating the not-so happening story of three lecherous men. The main problem of the film is that nothing is really happening in it. One wouldn’t expect the talented Abhishek Sharma to direct a film this boring but the fact remains that the filmmaker left his wits at home and ventured on this, and created his poorest work that will ever be (I Hope). Even with Akshay’s effortless humor, the film couldn’t score up to be part good. Just because you are getting bored at home, don’t go for this because then you’ll just be paying to get bored.
Rating:3/5 Review By:Kusumita Das Site:Deccan Chronicle
Lisa Haydon, after a spot-on turn in Queen, delivers another impressive performance as the air-headed designer whose wild spirit can only be tamed by Facebook. She lives and is ready to die for Facebook likes and of course “Akshay Kumaaarrr”.
And Akshay, who is also the narrator of the film, is bound to make converts out of his detractors with his rendition of himself in the film --- Akshay Kumar, an exasperated superstar, caught in the rut of 100-crore movies, desperate for a National Award and constantly complaining about how tired he is of jumping in and out of helicopters. His is a parallel track in the film that also gives a sneak peek into the lives of alcoholic superstars, publicity stunts, newcomer debuts and other such grey areas of filmdom. It’s refreshing to see that even though he plays a superstar in the film, not for a moment he becomes larger-than-life. The story manages to make him a mere mortal, which is of course the other side to any superstar. There’s also a delightful cameo by one of India’s funniest men, Cyrus Broacha. Cherry on the cake, alright.
With a catchy soundtrack, a steady supply of giggles, top-notch performances and an engaging script, Abhishek Sharma’s The Shaukeens is a worthy follow-up to his first film, the hilarious Tere Bin Laden. Watch it to get a taste of vintage Bollywood that’s not afraid to laugh at itself.
Rating:3.5/5 Review By:Bollywood Hungama News Network Site:Bollywood Hungama
After TERE BIN LADEN, Abhishek Sharma does what he is best at - making a completely hilarious entertainer. From retaining the stunt man aka KHILADI image of Akshay Kumar in the film to interconnecting the paths of Aahana and her three old men, Abhishek Sharma does a good job. Though the direction is perfect for the kind of entertainer THE SHAUKEENS is, there is nothing different or unique to mention.
On the whole, THE SHAUKEENS is a full on Bollywood entertainer that you wouldn't want to miss.
Rating:1.5/5 Review By:Rummana Ahmed Site:Yahoo
A National Award-winning Bengali director with an annoying accent makes another harebrained bid to tickle the funny bone. And then, it all collapses into a convenient lacklustre ending that is unconvincing and contrived.
It’s a shame that film after film reeks of uninspired writing and lazy filmmaking. Are we really this bereft of ideas that we can’t even replicate the success of a film that once worked?
Rating:2/5 Review By:Sukanya Verma Site:Rediff
Abhishek Sharma's competence in the satirical, evinced in Tere Bin Laden, extends into a tongue-in-cheek subplot around Akshay's personal aspiration to win a National award by working under an idiosyncratic Bengali filmmaker (Subrat Dutta) against the good sense of his endorsement-pimping business manager (Cyrus Broacha providing a welcome relief from all the oversexed jokers) and commerce-obsessed director (an excellent Manoj Joshi) taking vicarious pleasure in his rival's downfall.
Whenever Akshay appears on screen, The Shaukeens transforms into another movie -- one that's substantially more comic, cheeky and winsome -- it's the one I enjoyed the most, it's the one I wished I had come to see.
Rating:/5 Review By:Mihir Fadnavis Site:Firstpost
Akki plays Akki in the film, and the trio of old gentlemen takes turns in setting up meetings with him to grab some Ahana nookie. Not to leave Akki out of the picture, even he gets to hurl some choice degradingly sexist stuff, and still gets away because he ‘wink-wink’ plays himself. Lisa Haydon agreed to play such an embarrassing and regressive character is disappointing, especially after a rather empowering (and also fun) role in Queen. Incidentally, Rati Agnihotri who played the Ahana character in the original plays the ultra celibate wife of Lali in the film. To paraphrase Rusty Cohle, time is indeed an incredibly flat circle.
Rating:1.5/5 Review By:Sweta Kaushal Site:Hindustan Times
Veteran actors Kher, Mishra and Kapoor are, sadly, wasted in The Shaukeens. Lisa Haydon, for most of her part, plays the female body for the old men to letch at. However, in scenes where she confronts Akshay Kumar, her messy-chaotic fan avatar does tickle the funny bone. Playing a bohemian chic, an aspiring designer who makes hats and scarves out of tooth-picks, pigeon feathers and the like, Hayden totally pulls it in the looks department.
So, should you go for The Shaukeens? Watch it only if you are an Akshay fan. He's does not have a screen space of more 20 minutes in this 124-minute-long movie but when he is there, he makes his presence felt.
Rating:2.5/5 Review By:Naresh Kumar Deoshi Site:Apun Ka Choice
Anupam Kher, Piyush Mishra and Annu Kapoor slip well into the skin of their randy characters, but it’s the script that does them disservice. Lisa Haydon is creditable as a chirpy, star-struck, daft girl. Co-producer Akshay Kumar is the real scene-stealer with his funny act as a superstar trying to change tracks to win a National Award.
Surely not the National Award, but Akshay deserves much kudos for lifting things up in this otherwise dull, humdrum sex comedy.
Watch ‘The Shaukeens’ for Akshay.
Rating:/5 Review By:Ritika Handoo Site:Zee News
Model-turned-actress Lisa Haydon looks like an absolute delight on screen. The best part—she can act. She was a perfect pick for playing Ahana Bhasin in this movie. Her heavy French accent doesn't put you off, rather makes her look more appealing.
Her love for actor Akshay Kumar, and how these three oldies (best buds in Delhi) get to Mauritius leading to the events that make their sojourn filled with laughter pills, is something which you must watch-out for. Although, Akki is in a special appearance in the movie, he has taken a dig at himself and made fun of his own movies. The actor has shown that Akshay Kumar is not called the 'Khiladi' Kumar for nothing. Point taken.
We can say that, the young will love it while the old will think about getting, 'Shaukeen' (pun intended)!
Rating:/5 Review By:Prarthna Sarkar Site:IB Times
Kher, Kapoor and Mishra excel as the 'tharki buddhas' (pervert oldies). They make your guts wrench with their tasteless intentions, but at the same time touch your heart with the honest performances. Akshay Kumar's extended cameo somewhat keeps the story together but Haydon's free-spirited Ahana comes across as extremely scripted.
To cut the long story short, what could've have been a laugh riot was reduced to a boring journey of three men indulging in unabashed objectification of women.