The Shaukeens

The Shaukeens
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Abhishek Sharma
Produced by	Ashvin Varde Murad Khetani Akshay Kumar Trilogic Digital Media Ltd.
Written by	Tigmanshu Dhulia Sai Kabir
Screenplay by	Tigmanshu Dhulia
Starring	Akshay Kumar Annu Kapoor Piyush Mishra Lisa Haydon Anupam Kher
Music by	Songs: Yo Yo Honey Singh Hard Kaur Vikram Nagi Arko Pravo Mukherjee Background Score: Sandeep Chowta
Cinematography	Chaudhary Amalendu
Edited by	Rameshwar S. Bhagat
Production company	Cape of Good Films Cine1 Studios
Distributed by	AA Films
Release date	7 November 2014 (2014-11-07)
Running time	125 minutes
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	₹350 million[1]
Box office	est. ₹323.6 million[2]

The Shaukeens is a 2014 Indian comedy film directed by Abhishek Sharma. The film features Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor, Piyush Mishra, and Lisa Haydon in the lead roles, and Akshay Kumar in a supporting role.^[3]

The project is a remake of the 1982 film Shaukeen directed by Basu Chatterjee, starring Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutt, A. K. Hangal, Rati Agnihotri, and Mithun Chakraborty. Partly shot in Mauritius, The Shaukeens was released on 7 November 2014.^[4][5]

Plot

The movie revolves around three old men, Lalwani (alias Lali, played by Anupam Kher) is not happy with his wife (Rati Agnihotri), who is a staunch believer of God and doesn't spend time with him. Kamaldheer Sharma alias KD (Annu Kapoor) and is a bachelor for some unknown reason, while Pinky (Piyush Mishra) is secretly in love with a young Chinese woman, who only knows English but himself being uneducated, is unable to express his feelings. The three men plan a holiday to Mauritius to have some fun, where they meet Ahana (Lisa Haydon), who is a social networking addict and gets annoyed because her rival girls have more Facebook likes and her ex-boyfriend had been commenting and liking their posts. The three men try to impress her by pretending to like her collections made from weird things like animal body parts, which although are stingy, they pretend to like them by still complimenting her. However, her Facebook obsession reaches heights and Ahana decides to commit suicide, but is interrupted when she sees her idol, Rajiv Bhatia alias Akshay Kumar (Akshay Kumar) shooting for a song. She tells the three men, how she's a huge fan of Akshay and wishes to meet him. The three men try to get her to meet Akshay, much to his disturbance . Meanwhile, Akshay is revealed to be secretly an alcoholic, who drinks Alcoholic beverages filled in coconut, so that it appears like he's drinking coconut water. He agrees to work with Ranjit Basu (Subrat Dutta), a filmmaker, who is well known for his films earning more than ₹300 crores, and working with him would make Akshay, a better competitor to other superstars. However, Basu tells him, that he's not able to get in the character. The frustration of not getting into the required character and drinking too much alcohol causes Akshay to burst out in front of public and media on Pinky, who tells that Ahana had promised sex if he gets her to meet Akshay. Akshay publicly humiliates three men and Ahana, by calling them perverts and slut shaming Ahana. But this however, backfires on him as he is a Public figure. Moreover, he realises his mistake when Lali's wife blames KD and Pinky for this. This time, Akshay visits just when three men are about to leave, and asks them to forgive him and meets Ahana to apologise her. It is revealed that KD remained a bachelor because he loved Lali's younger sister, who is a divorcee but KD didn't want this to ruin his friendship with Lali. Akshay tells Ahana that to rectify his mistake,he has kept a conference, and that he intends to correct their public image. He tells in the press conference that he is working in a film Alcoholic, and what he did earlier was a promotional strategy and Lali, KD and Pinky are his uncles and know him from past. He also tells that Ahana is the new heroine of the film called "Alcoholic". While, the three men happily leave back to India. But Akshay finds himself even more frustrated, when he isn't able to get a good shot from Ahana, although he somehow manages to shoot the title track.

Cast

• Anupam Kher as Lali
• Annu Kapoor as Kamaldheer "KD" Sharma
• Piyush Mishra as Pinky
• Lisa Haydon as Ahana
• Akshay Kumar as Rajiv Bhatia A.K.A Akshay Kumar
• Rati Agnihotri as Mrs. Lalwani^[6]
• Manoj Joshi
• Kavin Dave
• Vandita Shrivastava
• Abhishek Bachchan in a special appearance
• Kareena Kapoor Khan in a special appearance
• Sunil Shetty in a special appearance
• Dimple Kapadia in a special appearance
• Subrat Dutta as Ranjit Basu
• Amrit Maghera in a special appearance in the song "Meherbani"

Production

The shooting started on 25 April 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa.^[7] The actors were shooting in a hotel room scene indoors and in June next schedule started in Mauritius, followed by a schedule in Delhi.^[8] Anupam Kher starts shooting in Delhi.^[9] Also, musical artist Honey Singh has been signed for a song in the film. Singh has earlier repeatedly collaborated with Akshay Kumar in the past, and after Kumar requested the rapper-performer for one special number for the film, Singh in turn offered him three songs for the film.^[10]

Initially, Nargis Fakhri was signed for the film but then left the project for a Hollywood film, Spy. ,^[11] then, this role offered to Shraddha Kapoor.^[12] The part was then offered to Lisa Haydon who accepted. Akshay Kumar signed to play the partner of Haydon's character, a role which Mithun Chakraborty had portrayed in the original film.^[13]

Soundtrack

The songs in the film are composed by Yo Yo Honey Singh, Arko Mukherjee, Hard Kaur & Vikram Negi. The film score is composed by Sandeep Chowta.

Box office

The Shaukeens collected ₹32.36 crore (US$5.0 million) from the domestic box office.^[2][14]

References

External links

• The Shaukeens on IMDb