… essentially a tasteless, overblown affair that plods on for 159 brain-numbing minutes. I’m going with half out of five, yes just half out of five, for Sajid Khan’s ‘Humshakals’. I’ve never had one, but I imagine a ruptured appendix would hurt less.

I am all for political incorrectness. Silliness can be great fun. But brainless doesn’t have to translate to brain-dead, when it is done with smarts. ‘Humshakals’ has zero. Even in his really terrible moments, Sajid has managed to come up with one laugh out loud moment. Or two. Here there are none.

Humshakals couples its crude farce with a certain aggression, as if daring the audience to stay in their seats while it repeatedly spits at them.

This is not filmmaking, this is sadism.

As social experiments go, this one tests patience rather than intelligence. It takes every ounce of the former not to take the cue from Ashok’s audience at the outset and leave.

With no story or comedy on offer, even Riteish and Ram are unable to save the day for Sajid Khan. Skip this movie if you do not want a bad headache and other after-effects of being tortured.

Humshakals could be one of those classic cases of the after party being a little better than the real party. Because after 159 minutes of, let’s not get into what that was, it’s the behind-the-scenes shots that actually make you laugh, if at all.

Humshakals is consistent in one respect: the only way it goes is down. The gags turn more and more grotesque as the film progresses, ending in such an unseemly heap that it becomes impossible to fathom what the hell is going on. Heed the warning: Humshakals is infinitely more insufferable. Even if you possess plenty of himmat, use it elsewhere.

The result’s like a minty chewing gum that’s been stretched too long. Shedding 30 minutes and some jaded gags would make Humshakals consistent fun – now, you laugh but also frequently go, ho-hum.

Humshakals is the lowest form of buffoonery I have seen this year. It would have been way more harsh if Ram & Riteish were missing from the film. Loaded with indecipherable dim wit, the film is an odd mishmash of pathos and drudgery. Unfunny and strictly for juvenile, I am gonna take the day off to decide whether Himmatwala was better than this. Meanwhile, stick to FIFA and stay away from the cinemas. Going with a very lenient 1.5/5, I am on the brink of lunacy after watching some glop like this.

It would be wrong to say Humshakals is an irrelevant film. It takes mainstream Bollywood comedy to its lowest level yet. Look at the brighter side. May be things can’t get worse than this in the future.

For Sajid Khan, I can only say that Humshakals will be listed in one of the worst films of the century.

Watch Humshakals only if you want to test your patience.

If over-the-top situations, silly jokes and a plot with no logic is what you are looking for then Humshakals is for you. You might manage to laugh a few times.

Simply put, comedy never looked this bad. Humshakals is an unforgiveable farce. At one point in the film, Chunky Pandey, whose cameo appearance is forgettable, says, “This is public harassment.” That is the precise sentence we’ll use to describe the experience of seeing this film.

HUMSHAKALS tries too hard to make you laugh, but fails miserably.

Having endured Himmatwala, it appeared that your creative juices had dried up and it couldn’t have got any worse. But sadly, we were wrong.

Make no mistake, I was well prepared for all eventualities. I practiced sitting on a cactus for two and a half hours every day to get myself ready for it. What I wasn’t prepared for was being water boarded at the same time.

I understand that this is kindergarten humour at its best, but I have just one question for Sajid; is HUMSHAKALS really a tribute to Kishore Kumar and Jim Carrey?

Silly, irreverent humour is always a welcome change. But braindead, childish (sorry children, don’t roll your eyes yet) pathetic attempt at funny is not. And I think the only original joke is the fact that Ram Kapoor quit his TV career for this film. Ram Kapoor did put in a sincere effort into making whatever he was doing believable but that sight of him in a red bikini overpowered it all.

Although, the director Sajid Khan tried to offer something new with the concept of triple roles in Humshakals but sadly the director has ended up making something below his original capability. All in all, Sajid Khan’s Humshakals proved out to be nine times more senseless.

Slapstick as a genre is difficult to execute. It is something that many people do not associate with. However there have been enough films in the genre that have left me rolling on the floor laughing. This movie fails to do that. Though it is notches higher an effort from Sajid’s last Himmatwala, Humshakals is not the film that would help him redeem his fate.

Humshakals doesn’t have any story, and the insane sequences run nowhere.

A series of bad gags is still better than a bad film that takes itself seriously. Therefore we give comedy the long rope. This one is dedicated to Kishore Kumar, Peter Sellers and Jim Carrey for inspiration. You could find yourself chuckling during certain initial portions of Humshakals, even though you would be laughing at the film rather than with it.

Sajid Khan’s new film isn’t as funny and entertaining as Housefull or Housefull 2 however it wouldn’t hurt if you watch it once. But keep your brains aside and I am sure you’ll have fun.

Watch it if you can tolerate Saif (dressed as a waitress, and looking eerily like a revolting version of Soha Ali Khan) getting sexy with Riteish, and Riteish (in a skirt) seducing Saif’s clone. And if Ram Kapoor lusting after his own clone (in drag), and trying to rape “her” is your idea of fun, who am I to judge. Just don’t say you hadn’t been warned!

I am not really expecting to enjoy a Sajid Khan film any time soon. But, is a little sensitivity too much to ask for from a filmmaker who has a reasonably wide reach? Does humor have to be at someone else’s expense?

Humshakals is a defiant film made by a man who is fast becoming a rebel without a cause. His audacity is almost frightening, but I was reassured by the pin-drop silence in the hall-one that’d accompany the screening of a gutwrenching war drama. This is, in many ways, not too different.