Khandaani Shafakhana: A Khandaani Take on a Taboo subject
On the onset I must congratulate debutant director Shilpi Dasgupta and writer Gautam Mehra for trying such a taboo subject.
Khandaani Shafakhana based in Hoshiyarpur, Punjab, tells the story of Bobby Bedi (Sonakshi Sinha) who is medical representative in an Herbal Medicine Company and trying to make ends meet, suddenly has a change of luck when she is informed that Hakim Tarachand a.k.a Mamaji (Khulbhushan Kharbanda) has willed her his entire property and his sex clinic with some pre-requisite conditions which she needs to fulfill in six months. Whether Bobby accepts the will and what she goes through for running a sex clinic is what the story is all about.
Writer Gautam Mehra takes an interesting premise of sex clinic run by a female and spins the story and screenplay around the premise. One thing I would give a thumbs up to the writer is the way he has written the characters. Each character is well etched and you do not feel any character is out of place. But where Gautam misses the mark is getting the emotional quotient correct. He scores brilliantly in the comic sequences but when it comes to emotions the script does not do justice. Some sequences between Bobby and her mother does show a spark of emotion, but then these are too few. The problem with the screenplay is that it is brilliant in patches and some scenes look disjointed, which fails to keep the audience invested. As far as the dialogues are concerned they are funny and gives you laugh out loud moments but in emotional scenes the dialogues fails to create the requisite emotion.
Well Khandaani Shafakhana is a Sonakshi Sinha movie throughout, and she does a brilliant job as Bobby Bedi. I think after Lootera this is Sonakshi’s best till now. Varun Sharma as Bobby’s brother yet again repeats his Choocha act, but is still affable and you do not feel bored when he is on screen. The surprise is Badshah who debuts as an actor in the movie as pop singer Gabru Ghataak, his chill out performance comes as a necessary breather in the movie. Nadira Babbar as Bobby’s mother as usual does complete justice to her role especially in emotional sequences between Sonakshi and her. Actor Priyansh Jora who is popular in television, debuts as a lead in this movie as Bobby’s love interest, does an impressive debut and is easy to your eyes. Annu Kapoor as advocate Tagra, seems to be enjoying his role to the fullest and yet again proves that he is an actor par excellence. It was such a treat to see veteran actor Kulbhushan Kharbanda on screen after a long time as Hakim Tarachand, he did complete justice to his role. Rest of the cast Rakesh Sharma, Rajiv Gupta and the support cast do a brilliant job.
Debutant Director Shilpi Dasgupta does a brilliant job in extracting excellent performances from the cast. And I have to give it to Shilpi who balances such a taboo subject so well that it never feels vulgar, whereas it could have gone that path. You can see the brilliance of Shilpi in patches, especially with comic sequences where she scores high, I really want to mention comic court room sequence in the climax. It is the emotional quotient where she misses the mark. But definitely with this movie Bollywood has got another women director who has the spark, looking forward more from Shilpi Dasgupta
I need to mention Abhishek Nailwal who gives a brilliant background score, especially in comic sequences. Cinematograper Rishi Punjabi does a brilliant job in setting the atmosphere with the requisite colors in each frame.
Khandaani Shafakhana is good in patches and it is the performances and the treatment that makes it worth a watch, I will go with Three stars.
Movie Rating: 
(3 / 5)