Humshakals
Year: 2014
Director: Sajid Khan
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Riteish Deshmukh, Ram Kapoor, Bipasha Basu, Satish Shah

Getting panned by critics (0, ½ and 1 stars galore!) and social networkers (with one tweeting, “He is alive only because he doesn’t watch his own films!”) is something Sajid Khan is used to. Giving scant respect to critics, (and to human intelligence in general!), he still goes on making films that he believes in. From Hey Baby to Housefull 1 & 2 to Himmatwala to Humshakals has been a progressively mind-numbing, mind-dumbing ride, which well and truly defies logic.

Humshakals takes Sajid Khan’s film-making ideals to extremes. We’ll come to those ‘ideals’ later but let’s stick to the plot or the lack of it. A heir to a mega-business empire (Saif Ali Khan) who does poor stand-up comedy acts in seedy night-clubs; a loyal friend (Riteish Deshmukh) and a Bad Man maternal uncle (Ram Kapoor) are the three main characters. The uncle plots to sideline the nephew to take over the business and he hires a scientist to help him in that mission. What’s the scientist’s solution? A chemical that when mixed with water would make the guys behave like dogs- obviously making them look like idiots and candidates for an asylum (named Sir Cray G asylum)! Cray G – Crazy – get it? Well, there are many more similar Cray G plot devices afoot as the two friends try to outwit the villain, with two more sets of main characters entering into the fray. If you don’t get the gist of the affair, then there is a song that keeps repeating in the background – Adla badly ho gayi, confusion shuru ho hayi!

Apparently this ‘masterpiece’ has been inspired by films of Kishore Kumar, Jim Carrey and Peter Sellers. Over the years, Sajid Khan has progressively gone on concentrating his peculiar cocktail of ‘humor’ based on bedroom switchovers, mimicry, classic movies, celebrities, people with mental/physical problems, gays, drags and acts of excretion! Now the cocktail (poking fun and pun at anything and everything!) has gone far beyond the slapstick or farcical limits and has become too toxic for consumption for normal humans.

And yet, the box-office success of the film proves one thing yet again that there is no dearth of subhuman or (should I say superhuman?) minds appreciating and paying for this deadly stuff. Perhaps there is a dire need for such stuff to make the humanity feel safe from the increasing onus placed on logic and intelligence.

But say what you may, I admire Sajid Khan for the simple reason of showing guts and gumption to make a film according to his convictions and showing the middle finger to the critics. It is not easy to make a film- however mindless, mirthless, meaningless it may be and furthermore, it is almost impossible to convince top production houses to finance it and top stars to star in it. Not only has Sajid managed that feat time and again; he has made his cast members gleefully dive headlong into idiocy and made pots of money from it.

Successfully carrying off a film featuring a triple role has proved beyond the likes of giants like Big B (Remember Mahaan?) but to make the masses swallow a plotless, tasteless pill like Humshakals featuring not one, not two but three triple roles and make crores out of that….well, Sajid Khan take a bow! You are indeed the real Himmatwala- so what if you deserve all that uncharitable stuff being said about you on the social networks!

Does it even matter whether I rate Humshakals 0 or ½ or 1 star? I guess not! For me, the 1 star for this film is a Khan and it is not Saif!