Producer : Kishan G. Kishnani
Director: N. Chandra
*ing: Govinda, Karisma Kapoor, Tabu, Nirmal Pandey
Music: Aadesh Shrivastava

Released on : October 6, 2000

Reviewed by: Anjali Abrol
dilwaliji@indolink.com

out of 
Shikari was hyped up to be a Govinda flick with a twist....a role with shades of gray, a negative role (and not in a David Dhawan way). Though the songs fail to impress (beyond Chunri Ude and Bahut Khoobsurat Ghazal) and the story seems like a long stretch for Comedy King Chichi. Nevertheless, the story is interesting and as twisted as some of Govinda's outfits.

Om Srivastav (Govinda) is a criminal who breaks out of jail, takes on a role of a businessman (e.g. con artist), under the name of Mahendra Pratap Singh, in South Africa. He is definitely a mirch masala sort of guy and wants to make it his life, by selling masala for less than the retail value and taking over the hai hai mirchi ufff ufff mirchi business. He seeks the aid of a casino owner, Sanya (Shweta Menon). Who stands in his way but Virendra Singh Rawal (Nirmal Pandey, his Hadh Kardi Aapne buddy, and now King of the Spice business. So what better way to beat business than to kill businessman? Hence, off with his head! Yes, Om kills him off and then poses as a good friend of Virendra's and establishes himself in their household. He lovey-dovey dances and sings with Rajeshwari (Karisma) for no apparent reason, though he really is after Virendra's wife, Suman (Tabu), his old flame.

Meanwhile, Sanya still knows that Om is Mahendra and hence, off with her head! He kills her off too....talk about some really negative shades! Rajeshwari wants to marry Om, Suman isn't so thrilled, she spills her love story to mama Sushma Seth, but as fate has it, Rajeshwari doesn't hear the story from Suman, but instead, from Om himself. How the story unfolds, and who is the shikari, the real shikari, is what makes the movie.

Govinda impresses in his role as a versatile, talented actor who is capable of conquering all sorts of roles. Karisma and Tabu do well in their small roles but both roles should have been defined better and developed more. Nirmal Pandey is just Nirmal Pandey....the only movie he ever showed talent in was Bandit Queen.

There are a lot of gaps and unanswered questions that are left untouched. For example, was Om a thief or a murderer initially? Or is both synonymous nowadays? I suppose that if you steal something from, say, a store, you are 'killing' business....

Like I mentioned earlier, the songs are nothing worth buying the CD over, the only good few songs are Bahut Khoobsurat and Chunri Ude (a definite Chichi Raveena song). One of the more irritating ones was the Soni Badi Hai. The spacing of the songs was inappropriately placed and took away from the film overall. Choreography was nothing extraordinary.

Overall, Shikari is a time pass film that would definitely not be worth a theater ticket, rather, a remote control (for fast-forward) and a rental video sort of flick.