Shakeela review :
Not many may know that Shakeela was a Southern sex siren of late 90s and early 2000s and her Malayalam films became such rage that their badly dubbed Hindi versions made it to the matinee shows of Mumbai single screens. This film is a purported biopic on this actor though it seems to be heavily inspired from Vidya Balan's super hit 'The Dirty Picture' (2011) which itself was a biopic on another soft porn star Silk Smitha.
Interestingly, the character Silk has a small presence in this film and it is only after her suicide that Shakeela's fortune changes. Pushed in to the soft porn industry by her greedy mother, Shakeela's rise to the top and her subsequent fall is chronicled in the film though it is nowhere as convincing and exciting as the Vidya Balan film.
Richa Chadda, in the titular role, is not bad but she doesnt resemble the real life Shakeela at all. There is no transformation in terms of accent and body language; something Balan could achieve fantastically in The Dirty Picture. Pankaj Tripathi playing superstar Salim is absolutely bland. As for the other supporting cast, the less said the better.
Shakeela is not a kind of film worth risking the theatres for. You may try it out once it premieres online.
Regards,
Sumeet Nadkarni.
