‘Khandaani Shafakhana’ Critics Review: Tricky Comedy Falls Limp

The film released in theatres on 2 August.

Film: Khandaani Shafakhana

Director: Shilpi Dasgupta

Cast: Sonakshi Sinha, Badshah, Varun Sharma

Here’s what critics have to say about Khandaani Shafakhana:

The trouble with this film is that quite soon it chickens out. From a comedy with a strong ‘social’ component which could have been a barrel of meaningful laughs, it turns into a soppy melodrama.

Shubhra Gupta, Indian Express

Khandaani Shafakhana contains all the elements for a comedy with a gender twist about the Indian tendency to pretend that sex happens to people from other countries but not to us. And yet, like the patients who frequent Unani doctor Tarachand’s sex clinic to boost their sagging spirits, the film never quite manages to get going.

Nandini Ramnath, Scroll

The problem arises when a film like this tries to play sexual troubles for laughs — making jokes of a wrestler with a broken penis, or a popular musician suffering from erectile disorder — and while Khandaani Shafakhana tries to eventually reach out with empathy, the initial attempts at humour rise mostly from the heroine’s disgust.

Raja Sen, Hindustan Times

To place a woman at the centre of a film about a Unani sex clinic in an orthodox small town was a stroke of brilliance on the part of the team of Khandaani Shafakhana. Beyond that, the best thing about this film is that it deals with a tricky subject without getting icky at any point. That apart, Khandaani Shafakhana is an opportunity lost.

Anna MM Vetticad, Firstpost

It ventures boldly into thorny, uncharted terrain courting the risk of floundering on the way and turning either too risque; or too chessy, but Khandaani Shafakhana, directed by debutante Shilpi Dasgupta from a screenplay by Gautam Mehra, is an admirably sure-footed, if not dizzyingly scintillating, film.

Saibal Chatterjee, NDTV