Nikamma review: You need ‘guts’ to watch Shilpa Shetty, Abhimanyu Dassani’s lacklustre 'mass entertainer'

2/5

An action-packed comedy set in Lucknow that takes us inside the carefree world of Adi (Abhimanyu), a spoiled no-gooder who has spent his entire life under his brother Raman's (Samir Soni) protection. It turns out that he and Natasha (Shirley Setia) are a match made in heaven. When Avni (Shilpa Shetty), a no-nonsense woman, enters his and his brother's lives, Adi's world is turned upside down.

When Sabbir Khan decides to direct a film, it sends people chills as he touts it as a mass entertainer. But it's a known fact that the film goes down south despite being a crowd-puller. However, once the crowd witnesses it, they realise that thronging the theatres and witnessing his directorial is a facade, so to speak. After directing Tiger Shroff in multiple films, including his debut Heropanti, Khan decided to bring Abhimanyu Dassani to his world.

The young actor looked promising in his foray into films with the brilliant Vasan Bala directorial Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota. However, after Meenakshi Sundareshwar, Dassani created a subtle space in the movies. Sadly, Nikamma has been added to his filmography and will surely be forgotten in the future.

The film is the Hindi remake of the Telugu film Middle Class Abbayi (MCA), which was released in 2017. The Venu Sriram directorial features Nani in the lead role, along with Bhumika Chawla and Sai Pallavi. A commercial potboiler, as it was called, didn't need to be remade, but Khan took the guts and went on to do it. Although the original film was a commercial hit, it drew flak, and one might wonder what the point of seeing it in Hindi is.

Nikamma starts with a scene which immediately takes us to flashback sequences wherein Adi (Dassani) resents his sister-in-law Avni (Shilpa Shetty Kundra), who apparently has come between him and his brother Raman (Samir Soni). We see typical "trying to be funny" sequences, and I just go, "Where is the film even going?"

Nikkama's screenplay is penned by Sriram, while the additional screenplay is by Khan. However, nothing good has been added to the story, which has made it entertaining. If it's called action-comedy, the latter ceases to exist, as I didn't even have a smile on my face in the first half.

But yes, I did laugh during the very serious moments, and I am not sure if the intense dialogues were given to add more humour or show that the story has any depth.

The best part of watching Nikamma is, hands down, Shetty, who has minimal dialogues but her presence is enough to grab all the attention on the screen. Although she is the point of discussion throughout the film, when she isn't seen, your eyes might long to see her as she is the only one tolerable.

Dassani, I wonder how he managed to ham in most of the sequences. And my god, the actor's loud dialogue delivery might frustrate you as he is seen on the screen. The actor set a high bar after his debut, but we are not sure when that will be crossed. Nope, Nikamma is definitely not that film.

The film also marks the Bollywood debut of Shirley Setia opposite Dassani, and she has been merely zeroed in to be eye candy. Well, not a good one though. Her storyline from the Telugu original is pretty similar as she steps into the shoes of Pallavi. Setia brings the tempo much lower. Her constant giggling and laughing in most of the sequences is a sheer annoyance.

To sum it up, the love story angle adds nothing to the storyline despite Shetty's character trying to make it through with a so-called secret being mentioned.

The typical revelation sequences of why Avni is who she is and Adi sees his mother in him will make you give a pale, straight-faced expression throughout.

The main antagonist of Nikamma is Abhimanyu Singh as Vikramjeet Bisht, and we have seen better of him over the years. The way he has been typecast after watching Sooryavanshi makes his villainous act abysmal.

The dialogues by Sanamjit Talwar seem to be more of an ode to the game of cricket, but why?! The over-the-top lines made sure that none of them needed to be taken seriously. Adding to it are the action sequences, which are typical and might not keep you stuck on the screen for a long time.

If a film is being remade, it's kind of an unsaid rule to have filmmakers take their creative liberty and not copy-paste everything we saw in the original. Nikamma also has the spice of commercial Telugu films, which people enjoy watching in the dubbed versions of the hit South Indian films. Maybe a course correction there? Well, it's too late to expect, right?!

A remake of Middle Class Abbayi was not needed, and it fails to make any mark from start to finish. Even if it was an OTT release, the film doesn't grab much screen attention that you might choose to hit pause or switch to something else.