Hindi cinema is known for blindly following a trend started by a few hits in a particular genre and KHANDAANI SHAFAKHANA is the recent example of the same. The film which actually promised a lot in its trailer tackling an unusual and bold plot full of many hilarious situations sadly turns out to be almost nothing, irresponsibly wasting a great potential opportunity.
Directed by Shilpi Dasgupta, the biggest and perhaps the only appreciable merit of the film is that it cleverly chooses an interesting basic plot (most probably spotting it from a few funny sequences of SHUBH MANGAL SAAVDHAN) and then never stoops down to any cheap level of double meaning dialogues or vulgarity. At the same time the writers neither build up the plot nor come up with any hilarious dialogues till the climax, thankfully having some funny one-liners in the end. Otherwise it never appears to be even made as an enjoyable bold comedy for some unknown reasons.
Another problem with KHANDAANI SHAFAKHANA’s writing is that it suddenly brings in Sex Education in its dialogues in its finale sequences and never touches the taboo subject before that. As a result it seems to be 'a damage control' kind of exercise towards the end which actually fails to make the desirable impact and doesn’t force you to give it a responsible thought. The sub-plot certainly deserved a proper and focused emphasis throughout the film.
Blindly following and yet expecting the success witnessed in the cases of VICKY DONOR, SHUBH MAGAL SAAVDHAAN and BADHAAI HO, the poor writing and execution also wastes a brilliant supporting cast including Annu Kapoor, Nadira Babbar, Rajesh Sharma and surprisingly badly treated Varun Sharma. It was nice to see Kulbhushan Kharbanda again but his role could have been a lot better. Likely modeled on the famous Hakim in Delhi, running Sablok Clinic since the pre-independence era, there was so much to exploit through his role and his Shafakhana. Unfortunately the film doesn’t even seem to be interested in doing so.
Making their acting debut, Priyansh Jore does an okay job in his given role but Badshah remains uncomfortable to average in his few scenes. The famous icon definitely has a strong screen presence (thanks to his flashy attires) but acting seriously needs to be worked upon if he is really interested in doing some more films. In his debut attempt, even the songs do not contribute anything great and the same can be said about the background score too that remains uneven. Once again based in Punjab, the art department also gives you a feeling of Deja-Vu, may be because a similar backdrop has been there in quite a few films in the recent past.
However, leading from the front Sonakshi Sinha truly owns KHANDAANI SHAFAKHANA and it’s a pity that the actress doesn't get any support from either the director, writer or the co-actors. Especially it’s the writing, that severely hampers the impact of her sincere portrayal, since the bland screenplay never finds its much required connect with the viewers. As a result, another solo project of Sonakshi fails to make an impact like her earlier ones.
Summing up, KHANDAANI SHAFAKHANA is neither an enjoyable sex-comedy (as projected) nor an emotional meaningful drama based on a novel plot. More importantly its crucial social message of Sex Education gets miserably lost amongst the silly, forced humour and directionless court proceedings (in the end) mocking the law itself.
So you can easily skip it in the theater and catch it later online on Prime Video.
Rating : 2 / 5
(Note : Young friends would be amazed to know that back in the 80s - a full length (2 min) advertisement of SABLOK CLINIC (Sex-Clinic) in Delhi used to play in many theaters before the film and it was quite famous too)
