• There are the odd moments of inspired humor – all crude – between the three senior actors, but for the most part they’re wasted.

  • Shubhra Gupta
    Shubhra Gupta
    Indian Express

    3

    Three dirty old men `leching’ at a pretty young thing is what ‘The Shaukeens’ sets out to show. If it had stuck to its guns, made its threesome more interesting, and the girl less ditsy, this remake of Basu Chatterjee’s ‘Shaukeen’ (1982), would have done its job.

  • Anupama Chopra
    Anupama Chopra
    Hindustan Times

    4

    The Shaukeens improves substantially in the second half when it becomes more about Akshay and less about the buddies. In fact Akshay earns the film an extra star.

  • Sweta Kaushal
    Sweta Kaushal
    Hindustan Times

    3

    Watch it only if you are an Akshay fan. He’s does not have a screen space of more 20 minutes in this 124-minute-long movie but when he is there, he makes his presence felt.

  • Kusumita Das
    Kusumita Das
    Deccan Chronicle

    6

    With a catchy soundtrack, a steady supply of giggles, top-notch performances and an engaging script, Abhishek Sharma’s The Shaukeens is a worthy follow-up to his first film, the hilarious Tere Bin Laden. Watch it to get a taste of vintage Bollywood that’s not afraid to laugh at itself.

  • Whenever Akshay appears on screen, The Shaukeens transforms into another movie — one that’s substantially more comic, cheeky and winsome — it’s the one I enjoyed the most, it’s the one I wished I had come to see.

  • The leading lady of The Shaukeens ditches her boyfriend because, in her words, “he made fun of my creation and called it stupid and obnoxious”.

    That is it: those are the very adjectives that would best describe this unfunny, eminently avoidable film.

  • Madhureeta Mukherjee
    Madhureeta Mukherjee
    Times Of India

    6

    The terrific threesome play their parts with ease and Lisa adds oomph and colour to the ‘grey’ streaks. Some humour is forced; songs are shovelled in, and the climax lasts way beyond the orgasm! A tad more comical chemistry between the trio would made this a far more entertaining fare.

  • If only Kumar were the main plot. When the movie returns to the randy old scarecrows, it feels like an anti-climax and just one more hackneyed, derivative film in a Bollywood library that’s already brimming with them. That said, if eye candy is your thing and you want two Yo Yo Honey Singh songs in your soundtrack instead of just one, you could do worse than “The Shaukeens.”

  • Rohit Khilnani
    Rohit Khilnani
    India Today

    2

    This film has no soul and no character. It’s time waste, paisa waste!

  • The Shaukeens is a lame, dunce, dis-satisfactory and a stupid film at its core that is so tedious and flat that you almost abhor your time at the cinema. If you can tolerate 30 minutes of Akshay Kumar making fun of himself and his colleagues by making funny faces, you can take a trip for this. But for me, it was a disappointing story of how we lost an intelligent filmmaker to fat paychecks from fancy production houses. There can’t be a better reason why someone as intelligent as Abhishek created something so glaikit.

  • Saurabh Dwivedi
    Saurabh Dwivedi
    India Today

    7

    Abhishek Sharma, who gave us the delightful Tere Bin Laden, does a great job with The Shukeens too. The film, despite its theme does not get crass or vulgar even once, which is why it will get a larger audience.

  • Koel Purie
    Koel Purie
    India Today

    8

    It’s been a while since I had an LOL moment in the cinema. Watching letchy comedy, The Shaukeens made me want to ROFL more than a few times.

  • … a full on Bollywood entertainer that you wouldn’t want to miss.

  • Sachin Chatte
    Sachin Chatte
    The Navhind Times

    4

    Director Abhishek Sharma gave is the entertaining Tere Bin Laden, but sadly The Shaukeens is nowhere close to it. Inspired by Basu Chatterjee’s Shaukeen (1982) this film loses steam very quickly. The rehashed plot where Akshay Kumar plays himself is funny in parts but eventually ends up going nowhere.

  • It’s a shame that film after film reeks of uninspired writing and lazy filmmaking. Are we really this bereft of ideas that we can’t even replicate the success of a film that once worked?

  • Shaukeen is a lopsided effort – some scenes leave you cringing while others have you rolling on the floor with laughter. A little more quality control would have given us a far better film…

  • Bollywood is getting unapologetic. That’s fine. But what is a worrying factor is the ‘care-a-damn’ attitude that comes with it. The paying public cannot be taken to be such idiotic fools that they will digest any trash dished out in the name of film-making.

  • With the story of three lecherous old men, the movie had every possible chance of crossing the line and becoming tacky and vulgar — and sure enough at some points it does too — but thankfully, director Abhishek Sharma and writer Tigmanshu Dhulia don’t allow the thin line between funny and smutty to be blurred too often. The end result? A fairly enjoyable film.

  • Subhash K Jha
    Subhash K Jha
    SKJBollywoodNews

    8

    The Shaukeens is a rib-tickling rumbustious sleaze-less comedy that Basu Chatterjee is likely to smile at.It’s bound to make you laugh out loud .

    Unless you are Jackky Bhagnani.

  • Given the number of remakes being churned out in Bollywood, it comes as a pleasant surprise to see one-movie-old Abhishek Sharma turn a 1980-hit adult comedy into something wickedly funny without ever reducing into a sleaze fest.

  • Komal Nahta
    Komal Nahta
    Komal Nahta's Blog

    -

    The Shaukeens falls short of expectations as the subject had far more potential. It is not half as funny and entertaining as the story promises and it will, therefore, not be able to prove its worth at the box-office. Losing.

  • Willing to ignore the crassness and take the film for the genre is actually belongs, you might actually find enough laughs.

  • Daily Bhaskar
    Daily Bhaskar
    Daily Bhaskar

    6

    If you are an Akshay Kumar fan, than this movie will definitely be a paisa wasool for you. The film shows good comedy by veterans like Anupam Kher, Annu Kapoor and Piyush Mishra who have for the first time come together on-screen. Also missing three old men running after a hot chick is something you would not want to miss.

  • We can say that, the young will love it while the old will think about getting, ‘Shaukeen’ (pun intended)!

  • Samiya Dinware
    Samiya Dinware
    BookMyShow

    5

    The Shaukeens is light-hearted comedy with some really good humorous scenes that will tickle your funny bones. Overall, the film leaves a pleasant feeling and is stress-busting. So go along with your family and friends and enjoy this hilarious caper this weekend.

  • IndiaGlitz
    IndiaGlitz
    India Glitz

    8

    …is unadulterated, breezy, quirky, facelift of the 1982 cult Basu Chatterjee’s classic ‘Shaukeen’. ‘The Shaukeens’ of Akshay Kumar (who spins a major hilarious surprise here), ‘Bollywood’ and ‘comedies’ will be continuously mingled with the giggles and laughter. Go laugh your heart out.

  • Tushar Joshi
    Tushar Joshi
    Bollywood Life

    7

    Watch The Shaukeens if you want to see another side of Akshay Kumar and enjoy a few chuckles along the way. Also do watch out for funny cameos by Suniel Shetty, Dimple Kapadia, Abhishek Bachchan and Kareena Kapoor.

  • In the end, director Abhishek Sharma (Tere Bin Laden) gives us a fast food version of what was a very charming and humorous film. Go for it if you have the stomach!

  • I don’t really have much more to say about this one except that I had to keep comparisons with my all-time worst film ever, *Buddha Mar Gaya * at bay. And it wasn’t the easiest task to do that.

  • JPN
    JPN
    Jagran

    -

    Cameos by Abhishek Bachchan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Suniel Shetty are few other highlights of the film. The camaraderie between the 3 seasoned actors makes the film a must watch!

  • A tedious film, watch if you are a fan of Akshay Kumar and can turn a blind eye to blatant objectification of women

  • The fantasy for beautiful ladies never fades it doesn’t matter how old one man grows. The Shaukeens displays the unending fantasy of the male fraternity in a light-hearted manner which is self-deprecating.

  • The Shaukeens is fun to watch only if you leave behind the logic and turn a blind eye to many bad things that’s been portrayed about women!

  • So if you don’t mind three aged men with high libido and low underwear blatantly hitting on a girl who is oblivious to good touch bad touch (Lagta hain madam ne Satyamev Jayate nahi dekha!), then The Shaukeens might work for you.
    Watch it only if you are a die-hard Akshay Kumar fan.