Shaukeen

Film : Shaukeen

Director: Basu Chatterjee

**Review by Dr Usman Latif Khawaj**a

It stars Ashok Kumar, Utpal Dutt, A. K. Hangal, Mithun Chakraborty and Rati Agnihotri.

**Dadamuni and BASUDA and MITHUNDA**

Well its not everyday that bollywood plans a suave sophisticated party and invites **mithun , ashok kumar , a.k.hangal and uptal dutt** along with rati agnihotri at her glamourous best , so I decided to gatecrash this great comic event and my my man was I amused , i laughed my head off and fell off the chair but thanks to god I still am blessed with my head and sustained no injury as my host saved the day ..

The host is an extremely talented bollywood chef **basu chatterjjee** and he makes the best dishes in bollywood and this is almost like eating a really good three course gourmet meal and the ingredients are extremely talented and spicy too  , and there are enough gags here for a comic series .

The plot concerns  three old men who fall in love with the same nubile young mata hari lookalike rati , who has a very handsome but penniless young beau \[mithun chakra borty \]chasing her around while the three oldies who are goldies as well , seem to be infatuated with her without her knoweledge initially but later she shrewdly exploits their crush on her as only a woman can with tactics which will make a corpse burst out laughing .

Anymore revelations will spoil the broth as there are too many good cooks here to intrigue even people who are not too hungry for stylish sophisticated comedies which basuda made in his later days .

The movie does suffer from a lack of great  soundtrack which is at best \[by R. D BURMAN \]only above average , compared to other basuda movies but there are some good songs like jab ki koi kangna bole  and the song sung by great dada muni in his own voice \[kishore kumar was his younger brother \]but the background score makes up for it and the cinematography is really good for an eighties movie ,

Watch the swimming pool scene with rati in a bikini and mithunda in speedos and then lets talk about who is sexy in todays generation of starkids ,

Anyway basuda made **baton baton me** and also **khatta meetha** which are equally good as comedies as were his friends , hrishidas **golmaal** , naram garam and gulzars **angoor** but **shaukeen is special** as it combines the talents of **five** comic **geniuses** from **bengal** and showcases them in a unique way to an ultimately hilarious ending .

this is not slapstick but great humourous cinema to be enjoyed again and again and if you are feeling morose take some laughter pills and I recommend this for now as every gourmet meal finishes off with a dessert or two and this dessert is actually five in numbers and four in stars ,

The movie is perfectly cast as the three old men headed by ashok kumar have a flair for comedy that is divine but mithun is superb and his versatility as an actor here is unquestionable as he is equally good compared to the 3 giants and rati looks an eyeful in her sexy attires without any cleavage displays and reveals a flare again for comic talent seen later in juhi and madhuri and before in hema and sridevi . but it belongs to basuda , dadamuni and mithunda and thats how I justify my title .

Hope you agree .let me know your opinions

I thoroughly enjoyed this feisty  party and was there for three hours or more and so did my family who accompanied me as it had a wonderfully apt environment unlike the sordid comedies of today as this is a suave sex comedy which even hollywood would envy anyday .

Let me say its inspired from basudas own chottisi baat which was adapted from **A SCHOOL FOR SCOUNDRELS**, and also has shades of the hilarious victoria no 203 again with the immaculate actor ashok kumar who along with the helpless youth mithun steal this cake and eat it too , much to the audiences delight .

A classy affair which was sucessful at box office too , a rarity in bollywood

This review is in honour of my bengali friends on mouthshut

*sanjoy , mimi and romuz*\* and as a tribute to ashok kumar and mithunda too along with the host who was indeed a great bollywood chef

*cheers*

how about some \*\*good old vintage wine like shaukeen\*