After her grandfather bequeaths her his shafakhana, Baby Bedi learns that there is a caveat to it. To keep the clinic, she must first run it for six months. Without any prior knowledge of Unani Medicine, this is a rather challenging proposition for Baby Bedi. To make things more complicated, the neighborhood folk do not take kindly to the fact that despite being a woman, she is tinkering with the idea of managing a sex clinic. With such an intriguing premise we should have got a laugh-out-loud comedy. Instead, it is a drag devoid of any spark as we see in the Khandaani Shafakhana film review.
In the theater where I saw Khandaani Shafakhana, I could barely hear as much as a chortle for long passages of the film, alluding to how the movie misses its mark.
Sonakshi Sinha in the lead role as Baby Bedi does better than what most would have expected of her. She plays with aplomb the uncertain young lady who is not sure if she should go with what is generally accepted in her world or break free and do her own thing. However, she is left grappling with the prosaic script. Khandaani Shafakhana underplays the inherent humor in the story, leaving you to ponder over the missed opportunity.
Khandaani Shafakhana has delightful performances from Kulbhushan Kharbanda as Baby Bedi’s grandfather and Nadira Babbar as her mother. Annu Kapoor is oddly lackluster as Tagra, the lawyer who has to make sure that Baby Bedi carries out her granddad’s will. Even comedic actor Varun Sharma struggles to get invested in his poorly written role as Baby Bedi’s brother. Although rap-singer, Badshah, in his debut role as an impotent musician Gabru Ghatak, does just enough to keep his fans interested.
One gets the feeling that although the filmmakers had figured out what they wanted to say via their film, nobody knew exactly how to translate that impactfully to the screen. Khandaani Shafakhana intends to convey the message that it is beneficial to have a conversation on a taboo subject like sex. However, the film’s feeble narrative fails to get across the same convincingly.
With a lack of witty dialogue, Khandaani Shafakhana does not tickle your funny bone often to be an entertaining comedy. Adding to its woes is the film’s duration of over two and a quarter hours that fails to keep you consistently invested in its story. In particular, a few scenes go on forever and in the process take you out of the film.
What works for Khandaani Shafakhana though is the old-town feel that is skilfully brought forth with the shafakhana itself looking quite authentic. The colorful settings enhance the film’s story giving it a much-needed vibrancy.
If you are a fan of Sonakshi Sinha or are merely curious to see a film revolving around Unani Medicine, this might be a satisfactory watch. However, if you are looking for a movie with smashing comedy to go along with a social message, Khandaani Shafakhana will leave you disappointed.
Khandaani Shafakhana film review rates Khandaani Shafakhana 
(2 / 5)
If you enjoyed reading the Khandaani Shafakhana film review at Film Comments, please share it with others.
What do you think?