A movie from the house of Rakesh Roshan certainly raises expectations. And the publicity just before the release did add to the excitement. But all pump and show is nothing and the film disappoints in all departments.
First of all the movie is completely predictable from the very first scene and it simply goes on with sequences which are just repetition of stuff seen many times before. In a nutshell the story is about some friends witnessing a crime and then the villains keep following them in the rest of the movie. Only this time the novelty is that the four friends are all mental patients who find an opportunity to roam out of their hospital.
All the talented artists including Irfan Khan, Rajpal Yadav, Arshad Warsi and Juhi Chawla are just wasted and no one gets any scenes to talk about. Rajpal Yadav is the one who is better among the four patients as the freedom fighter. Arshad Warsi, strangely is not doing any comedy but shows that he can be an angry young man too. Irfan Khan can be seen trying to do the hard work as a mental doctor. Suresh Menon has no dialogues and speaks through his facial expressions. But as the script has nothing for them in store so they all seem to be helpless. The movie is inspired from a 1989 movie "THE DREAM TEAM" but it's not at all an impressive copy.
The greatest drawback is that it's not a comedy, though it was publicised as a hilarious comedy flick. You keep waiting for comedy scenes to come but they are never there. All the songs come as an interruption and are also not enjoyable at all. The biggest let down is the "Ek Rupaiya" song after the interval, which makes you think, why the director chose this song to be there in final print. Only the last scene with some good dialogues is a kind of silver lining in the dark clouds.
The biggest asset of the movie "Shahrukh Khan's Item Number" is well shot but it alone cannot save the film from sinking. Neither can the dance numbers by Hrithik Roshan and Rakhi Sawant. Rajesh Roshan / Ram Sampat music has nothing to talk about except the item numbers. The pace picks up just before the movie ends and the director tries to imitate a Priyadarshan kind of hilarious climax sequence which falls flat.
After you finish the screening you just wonder why Rakesh Roshan backed up this project. In my opinion the talented father and son (Rakesh & Hrithik) knew that they have a weak final product so that is the reason they added 2 item numbers and also had a last moment publicity gimmick of plagiarism.
A Big Let Down with a huge difference between the expectations and the final outcome. It is neither a good comedy nor a good thriller.
