Cast: Yasmin Pathan, Subrat Panda, Premlata Kumari, narendra Tiwari, Karthik Gaur, Saahil Garg, Vanshika gupta, Priyanka Singh, Pramod Shukla, Manisha Singh
Director: Anil Chorasiya
Rating: *
Runtime: 117 mins
One wonders how such films with a demented ideology crawl out of the woodwork when more deserving ones find it difficult to see the light of the cinema screens. There’s no accounting for taste in this industry filled with moneybags who have little idea of cinema- just climbing on to the bandwagon hoping for an elusive spin under the arc-lights.
‘Shaukeen Kaminay’ is a nondescript effort to tease your baser instincts in the crassest possible way. Three bachelors sharing a home, are living the life -serial girlfriends and sex.. but it doesn’t seem enough. A chance conversation with their maid reveals a unique village in the hinterland, titled Narigoan, where any male can just walk in, choose a bride, marry her, consummate the marriage and then feel free to walk away thereafter , no questions asked. The three men are quite intrigued and book their passage to this fantasy village. Once there, they do as planned but things don’t go the way they envisaged.
The film is totally confused in it’s theme. The opening voice-over indicates that the film is about conservative India’s penchant for virgin brides. The script even has one of the lead character’s making it his reason for marriage. That he gets fooled is another matter though. The first half is all about following the men and their indulgences. By the time that’s done you prefer walking out than waiting desperately in the hope that there’s something redeemable here. The script doesn’t have a straightforward arc. It meanders in different directions before it gets to the ‘virginity’ argument. And to even discuss that would be to propagate an ideology that is entirely bigoted.
This is a dramedy that has little humor and even lesser logic. The actors are singularly lacking in grace and magnetism and have little energy to make this gambit viable. The songs do have some inveiglement but the choreography and picturisation is so woebegone that you are likely to forget that you ever heard them. The Director really did not seem to know where to take the narrative and it shows. This one is better left alone!
