Humshakals Review

One-Liner Review : A 159 minute excruciating voyage to a virtual asylum.

Positive Points: Colourful frames, stunning international locations and foot-tapping music give you a fresh energetic feel.

Negative Points: Inferior performances, non-tickling humour and too-much of confusion reduces interest.

Plot: It is the story of mayhem that takes place when three individuals, all possessing the same name have a lookalike of a lookalike. Best buddies Ashok (Saif Ali Khan) and Kumar (Riteish Deshmukh) both do not know of their lookalikes Ashok (Saif Ali Khan) and Kumar (Riteish Deshmukh), who are also best buddies who are also not aware of their lookalikes Ashok (Saif Ali Khan) and Kumar (Riteish Deshmukh), again who are best buddies. Also there is this particular Mamaaji (Ram Kapoor) who is a lookalike of another Mamaaji (Ram Kapoor) who in turn is a lookalike of another Mamaaji (Ram Kapoor). In short, it's the story of three particular individuals who have two other lookalikes of each one of them.

The film begins with credits paying tributes to Kishore Kumar and Jim Carrey. The movie is partially set in an asylum. UK-based business tycoon Singhania falls into a trap laid out by his evil uncle played by Ram Kapoor. Ram Kapoor, the conniving uncle intends to tarnish Ashok (Saif Ali Khan's) fortune by declaring him insane. After the consumption of a green-coloured liquid Ashok and Kumar starts showing canine tendencies resulting them in their incarceration at a mental hospital named after one Cray G. The mental asylum is run by a bunch of insane jerks with never-seen-before treatment methods.

And also there is this coincidental goof-up that the other Ashok-Kumar pair that regresses back to childhood for lame reasons. The actual Ashok and Kumar have been friends since second standard. Ashok and Kumar are pals whose look-alikes with exactly the same names are locked up in a mental asylum and third link to their story is their look-alike with the same names. Alike them, Mamaaji too has his triple roles. None of these people are aware about they are having 2 other look-alikes. It is that then their look-alikes are also lodged in the neighbouring ward with the exactly the same names. The second pair is infuriating and their arrested development gets them transformed into annoying kids. Then there is the final and third pair of look-alikes (effeminate gays) is also introduced in post interval. The female leads Esha Gupta, Tamannaah Bhatia Bipasha Basu romances with Ashok and Kumar. The present situation starts complicating when each of their lookalikes enters the scene inflating the presentation confusion.

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: About the direction, well, the director Sajid Khan compiles a bunch of old school PJs, staples those non-witty PJ's into dialogues, hires three good-looking women and three men, who are assigned three different role to entertain the masses for over two-and-a-half-hours of screen time which is tiresome in one word. Sajid Khan perfectly manages to create triple roles for his three leading men. For instance, there is this thing called MAD - Mind Altering Drug,which transforms sane and sound men into dogs, and to add more to it, a stage-3 OCD, where a sneeze could result into life-jeopardizing situations, and pheromones that helps obnoxious "women" get attracted to the opposite sex. These are the intricacies that the director and the script writer have invested their time into. It is not over. There is also an aged man stuck in coma, for six long years, because of a carelessly equipped oxygen cylinder. One of the lamest scenarios is also where a Prince Charles-lookalike speaks fluent Hindi which is sheer puerile. Cinematography by Ravi Yadav is top notch and he has already proven his talent in films like 'Humraaz', 'Naqaab', 'Race'. Visually, the film is very bright and attractive. This movie was shot at the outskirts of London and Mauritius pumping in a heavy budget which did of course please our eyes. Background music was average. Overall, the visual appeal of this movie is rich and eye-catchy.

Music: The album opens with "Callertune", which is definitely the most exciting track. Neeti Mohan and Neeraj Shridhar's voice prove the best combo. The track "Piya ke bazaar mein" is a bit desi sung by Himesh Reshammiya, Shalmali Kholgade and Palak Muchhal. This one drives you back to great early 90s giving you a feel of a Kumar Sanu style music. There is one party track by Ash King and Neeti Mohan, "Just look into my eyes", which is foot-tapping. "Barbaad raat" is a slow number. Sanam Puri and Kholgade did justice to this track anyways. "Hum pagal nahin hai" sung by Reshammiya and is average. Finally, the song "Khol de dil ki khidki", a filmy romantic number shot on the beach is good to hear and of course is visually appealing. Mika Singh and Mucchal's have done the vocals for this track.

Performance: Saif Ali Khan is just about okay. Of the three Riteish Deshmukhs, the sane Kumar is convincing, who occasionally dresses as a girl. His expressions and body language are hilarious, and was probably the only funny character in the whole movie. His other two performances are equally flawless, showcasing his superior comic talent. Unfortunately, Sajid Khan provide him the stage to showcase his true horizon.

Satish Shah does his part with mere perfection; there is nobody else who would provide you moments to laugh your lungs out loud.

And despite all odds, Ram Kapoor does a decent job of playing the mean mama. He is also convincing playing the Punjabi club owner, and he's tolerable and doesn't graph in or out. There is one scene where Ram's menacing side is revealed to Saif and Ritesh and he does the goon act with finesse. As for the ladies, they are just glam quotient inflators that hold you back to your already repelling auditorium seats. They are perfectly used as a mere decoration. Like Amisha Patel in 'Race 2', Bipasha Basu tries really hard to expose her toned long legs, while Tamannaah Bhatia and Esha Gupta also does similar acts in the movie.

Final Verdict: Overall, 'Humshakals' is an intolerable piece of cinema that is an outcome of a bad script and poor direction which unfortunately does not tickle you as promised. It leaves your faces swollen with anger to have wasted your money on this worthless slapstick comedy. With its farcical plot and puerile comedy scenes that tests the patience; this flick is infuriatingly a too-long pot-boiler which gets to your nerves. Thumbs down for this one.