[adolfadsermens]

Story: Shakal Pe Mat Ja revolves around four friends- Shubhashish Mukherjee, Pratik Katare, Harshal Parekh and Chitrak Bandhopadyay, who become victims of suspicion at the Delhi Airport, on a high alert day. Cops catch hold of them while they happen to take a shot of an American aircraft, which is a terrorist target, for their documentary film on terrorism. Senior inspector Raghuveer Yadav and ATS officer Saurabh Shukla become further suspicious, when terrorist Aamna Shariff enters in the picture and creates an impression that they all belong to one gang. The rest of the movie is about whether these chaps get to prove their innocence and also, how police comes to the rescue of passengers by curbing the terrorist attack.



Story Treatment: SPMJ rests on a very conventional storyline, which lacks lustre in the terms of a poor screenplay. The effort of making a political satire falls flat, as the filmmaker goes overboard while tackling the subject. In fact, some portions of the story have an uncanny resemblance with SRK starrer Baadshah and Ali Zafar’s Tere Bin Laden. Dialogues prove to be the saving grace of the movie but, become monotonous after a point of time, as the plot thickens.

Star Cast: Shubhashish Mukherjee doesn’t convince as an actor. In fact, he overacts at some points, which seems quite obvious. Pratik Katare and Harshal Parekh look adorable and give a fine performance. Chitrak Bandhopadyay is promising as a debutant, but looks like a replica of Kunal Kapoor in Delhi Belly, especially in the ‘fart’ sequence. Saurabh Shukla and Raghuveer Yadav are ‘A’ class. Ditto for Zakir Hussain as chief of Al Baqaida.

Direction: Shubhashish Mukherjee too fails to leave an impact as a director. Various loopholes kill the movie. There are points where the storyline doesn’t even move an inch and the entire first half bores the viewer to death. The failure of cops, who are unable to identify the four friends at the airport after latter dodge the former, looks unbelievably annoying. The way Aamna Sharif’s character moves around the airport with no fear, despite cops looking for her adds on to misery.

Music/ Cinematography/ Dialogues/Editing: Music is refreshing, but has no potential to be a chartbuster album. Cinematography draws attention, though second half is bland. Dialogues and editing induce life in the film, which makes it at least tolerable at some points.

3 Ups and 3 Downs: Some good performances, dialogues and experimental editing are the strong points. Loopholes in screenplay, a thin storyline and confusing direction are the weaknesses.

On the whole, Shakal Pe Mat Ja doesn’t leave a mark at all and can be easily given a miss.

[bawayTeen]

Sometimes a movie comes along that is surprisingly watchable, even though it may not have popular stars or a big banner backing it. Often, it comes and goes faster than the proverbial speeding bullet – or was that G.One? – with enough madness to make a lasting impression, a la Tere Bin Laden, and sometimes it is of a similar genre, but without the chutzpah to become a sleeper hit. Shakal Pe Mat Ja is something of the latter kind, where chaos rules and lunacy prevails with no real aim or intention, missing the target ever so closely and leaving the viewer wondering what that was all about.

The film starts off very much like TBL – the director and lead actor, Shubh Mukherjee, attempts to make a documentary film on terror attacks for a college assignment. He ropes a group of his friends into the project and things go from oops to ouch very fast, leaving the audience wondering not just what is happening, but why.

Mukherjee tries hard but goes just that little bit off-track, enough to be irritating as director and as actor; Chitrak Bandhopadyay, the sort of sidekick, has little to do beyond breaking wind and trying to be funny in a pseudo-foreign accent; Pratik Katare is loaded down with fallout from his role in Paa but does not match it; and the long-haired Harsh Parekh has little charisma on screen as he has role to play. Saurabh Shukla plays a cop and Raghubir Yadav and Joy Sengupta wander on and off screen with not much to do. The girls, Umang Jain and Aamna Shariff really need to work on the assignments they choose.

Shakal… could have been a laugh-riot; instead, we would not be too surprised if there was a riot at the BO with people asking for their money back!

[hrthwhr]

Cast: Shubh, Pratik Katare, Saurabh Shukla, Raghuveer Yadav, Chitrak Bandhopadyay, Harshal Parekh

Director: Shubh Mukherjee

The dramatic event of 9/11 has been influencing filmmakers since a decade. 'Shakal Pe Mat Ja' is director Shubh Mukherjee's take on the changed perspective of the world after the air attacks on WTC and Pentagon but don't expect any serious film as the story showcases the funny circumstances on Delhi international airport in the wake of a hyped terrorist attack.


A bizarre group of four wannabe filmmakers find themselves in a mess when the police arrest them as terrorism suspects. Ankit Sharma (Shubh Mukherjee), the apparent leader of the group tries to convince the authorities that they were filming the landing planes just for the sake of a documentary which they believe will become an instant success. ATS chief Saurabh Shukla arrives at the centre spot when Omprakash (Raghuveer Yadav) fails to dig up any clue about the possible terror attack.
Some Arabic and Pakistani porn seized from another member of the group Rohan (Chitrak Bandhopadhyay) appeals the interrogators to go for harder methods but then the blunder happens. The police mistakes Dhruv's (Prateek Katare), third member of the group, physics project for a bomb.
Entering of some real terrorists in the scene sparks a comedy of confusion and chaos which eventually inspire the boys to escape from the police custody.
However, the misfortune does not leave them and they get trapped between the police and the terrorist group 'Al Bakayda'.
One man army Shubh Mukherjee has donned the responsibilities of writer and director besides playing the chief lead Ankit. The disadvantage of fulfilling too many slots gets reflected in Shubh's acting where he fails to create a believable chemistry among the four members of the group. Every actor appears to be operating from a different island.
Chitrak Bandopadhyay has appeared in TV commercials but the actor looks nothing else than a farting machine. It's the high time for young filmmakers to invent new comic situations than same age old state of affairs where a fat and dumb looking man keeps farting against the audiences' demand. Chitrak looks at ease but does not achieve anything as an actor. The Hindi film industry will get just another stereotyped actor if Chitrak does not put more thinking into his subsequent roles.
Prateek Katare is the find of 'Shakal Pe Mat Ja'. The child has potential and can do better if handled carefully. He carries the punch lines satisfactorily.
Raghuveer Yadav disappoints in the film. Probably the inexperienced director stopped Raghuveer from churning the best out of him but the actor has done some unexpected errors too. His dialect does not belong to anywhere. It's neither Haryanavi Hindi, nor Bihari Hindi. It would be difficult for the acclaimed actor to explain the reasons behind delivering abuses with a blank face. He does not look convincing as a security in charge.
Saurabh Shukla is the real person to watch out for in the film. Shukla has changed his style of acting in 'Shakal Pe Mat Ja'. He looks relaxed and fantastic as an ATS officer. His one liners are fabulous and provide life to the film.