Humshakals

Plot

Ashok (Saif Ali Khan) and Kumar (Riteish Deshmukh) are best friends, whereas Shanaya (Tamannaah Bhatia) and Mishti (Bipasha Basu) are their love interests. Ashok's father is a multi millionaire but has been in a coma for the last six years, while his wicked Mamaji (Ram Kapoor) teams up with an evil doctor, Dr. Khan (Nawab Shah) to get rid of Ashok and take over all his property. During a board meeting Singh (Ram Kapoor) mixes a medicine in Ashok and Kumar's drink and they both start behaving like dogs.

They are taken to a mental asylum for treatment by Dr. Shivani (Esha Gupta), who soon realises the truth and promises to discharge them. But fate takes a twist as two lookalikes of Ashok and Kumar being treated in the same hospital's 'B' ward (who work for Bijlani (Chunkey Pandey), a cocaine smuggler) are accidentally released instead of the true ones. Shanaya and Mishti take them to Ashok's mansion where Singh understands the whole mix-up and plans to use the duplicate Ashok to become the owner of the whole business empire. Now the true Ashok and Kumar also come to know of Mamaji's evil plan but are stuck in the asylum. They are offered help by one of the ward boy Cyrus (Darshan Jariwala), who takes them to a secret ward 'C' to meet 'Johnny' who is a look alike of Mamaji but has a dangerous habit of attacking people who sneeze in front of him. Ashok and Kumar plan revenge against Singh with the help of Johnny but get caught by the warden Y. M. Raj (Satish Shah) before they can escape from the asylum. Y. M. Raj prepares to punish them but accidentally sneezes in front of them. Angered by this, Johnny beats him black and blue, thus helping the three to escape.

On the day of the board meeting, the true Ashok and Kumar were about to expose Singh, when Dr. Khan triggers the fire alarm. All the three mental patients escape the building. Now desperate Ashok and Kumar bump into a dance bar owner Balbir the triplicate of Singh while Singh also arranges another set of Ashok and Kumar with the help of plastic surgery. Singh takes the triplicate Ashok and Kumar to 'House of Commons' were the fake Ashok is to hand over all the business to him in the presence of Prince Charles but the real Ashok and Kumar arrive along with the triplicate of Singh. To add to the confusion the three mental patients also storm in to help the real Ashok and Kumar creating panic among the eyewitnesses on seeing so many lookalikes together.

The movie closes with Ashok's father coming out of his coma and recognising the true Ashok and getting Singh arrested for his deeds.

Cast

Filming

Shooting of the film commenced on 24 September 2013 in London with Saif Ali Khan, Ram Kapoor and Riteish Deshmukh all of whom have reportedly been cast in triple roles. The team of Humshakals shot in Mauritius for the final part of the film starting on 22 February 2014. Two songs and several sequences were shot at the La Plantation Resort & Spa, Le Méridien, Intercontinental Resort, Bagatelle Mall of Mauritius and the Northern Beaches. Mauritian extras also participated in the shooting.

After the release and the poor critical response, Saif Ali Khan told the press that "The film didn't have a script as such, it was all there in Sajid's mind."

Soundtrack

The soundtrack of Humshakals is composed by Himesh Reshammiya and lyrics are written by Mayur Puri, Sameer and Shabbir Ahmed. The first single of the movie is "Caller Tune", by Neeraj Shridhar and Neeti Mohan. The soundtrack was released on 26 May 2014.

Reception

Despite poor critical reception, the film did well at the box office during first few days after release. The film made 63.72 which Koimoi estimates is less than half of its investment.

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 0%, based on five reviews, with an average rating of 2/10. Saurabh Dwivedi of India Today stated "for Sajid Khan, I can only say that Humshakals will be listed in one of the worst films of the century." Mihir Fadnavis wrote in his Firstpost review, "... sexual tomfoolery, shrieking and hamming aside, there's much more to hate about this 'family movie'. It's disturbing to see such an atrocious, regressive, misogynistic, sexist, homophobic cinematic product force-fed to paying audiences. I can understand that a comedy need not be 'safe', but what goes on in Humshakals is simply too horrifying to bear." Sweta Kaushal of Hindustan Times rated the film 0.5 out of 5 and stated "With no story or comedy on offer, even Riteish and Ram are unable to save the day for Sajid Khan." Mohar Basu of Koimoi gave it 0/5 stars and said the film was "[l]oaded with indecipherable dim wit" and "an odd mishmash of pathos and drudgery." Writing in Emirates 24/7, Sneha May Francis claimed that it succeeded Khan's previous endeavor, Himmatwala, in becoming the worst Bollywood film ever. Critic Sonia Chopra of Sify.com wrote "there are bad movies, and then there's Humshakals. The worst film of 2014 so far, in my book".

Several of the cast members also lamented their involvement in the film. Bipasha Basu didn't participate in the film's promotions called Humshakals "the worst experience of [her] life," and Esha Gupta warned family members not to see the film. After the release of the film, leading actor Saif Ali Khan lamented that "I've been introspecting a lot and will never repeat a mistake that was Humshakals."

The film received five Golden Kela Award nominations, and won for Worst Film. It also won two Ghanta Awards; the film won Worst Picture and Ram Kapoor, Saif Ali Khan and Riteish Deshmukh shared the Worst Actor award.