If not for Akshay

• Tittle :The Shaukeens
• Cast :Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor, Piyush Mishra, Lisa Haydon and Akshay Kumar
• Direction : Abhishek Sharma
• Genre :Comedy
• Rating :**
• Like :Akshay Kumar
• Unlike :Crass humour

Basu Chaterjee is not easy to replicate. Time also adds a certain flavour; so viewed with hindsight and the comparative product, you begin to see greater value in the past product. Surely this time round you do not have to search for too many reasons. The troika of sex hungry ‘men past their prime’ border on being lewd. To begin within compare, Anupam Kher, Anoo Malik and Piyush Mishra fall short, well short of the liveliness that Ashok Kumar, AK Hangal and Utpal Dutt brought to the original film that played with the idea of naughty romance of the old guys.

This time round you have the three guys whose lecherous indulgences border on the crass. We have Lali (Anupam) whose matrimonial life has the non-cooperative wife (Rati Agnihotri- in a rude connect to the past – the 1982 comedy), KD (Annu Kapoor) the guy who is a bachelor but with a broken heart and Pinki (Piyush Mishra) the widower who is now a grandpa. All three, after an abortive attempt to go on a sexscapade to Bangkok, decide to change the venue of their adventure and land up in Mauritius as guests in the house of Ahana (Lisa Haydon) who is fighting hard to overcome her broken affair on the ground that her fiancé has more likes than she on Facebook. The pigeon brained bimbette cannot see the intention of the three guys.

She is a big time fan of the Bollywood star Akshay Kumar who she sees at a shoot in Mauritius. The three guys go out of the way to get her to meet Akshay to gain advantage but with all three being successful they end up being equal non suitors. What happens with the entry of the star Akshay – who is a rude alcoholic star in search of a National Award and tired of doing main stream stunt filled films is where the script makes its seeming departure from the original.

Where did the film go wrong? Perhaps with the director (Abhishek Sharma) or even prior to the execution of the adventure at the level of the script by Tigmanshu Dhulia! The cast goes overboard. The three senior actors get on your nerves by cooperating with the filmmaker and doing exactly what he has ordered. None seem to bother about their repute as actors- certainly not the most reputed of them - Anupam Kher.

The film has a bright spot though. Watch it for Akshay Kumar playing a fictious version of himself. Amazing how the guy fights the innocuous script and breathes energy into the film. With an entry after half time, he lifts the energy of the film. He proves that a good actor can take a script beyond its limitations and entertain his fans with a sincere application. Akshay like Rishi Kapoor earlier proves that a good actor is one who can carry even the ordinary and the profane to a level of credibility and acceptability. The film is a salute to his talent.