Nikamma Review - Shilpa Shetty Springs A Surprise In A Wasted Remake Of Middle Class Abbayi With A Double Twist

Shilpa Shetty's return to the big screen, for good, I should say, has been facilitated by Abhimanyu Dassani and Shirley Setia's Nikamma. A remake of Nani's Telugu hit film, Middle Class Abbayi (2017), Nikamma is nothing but a waste of time, money, and talent. To be frank, even Nani's Telugu flick had flaws and illogical scenes, but it was okay with Telugu audiences, especially 5 years back. Today, the audience has changed and has become more cautious about the content they see. Therefore, Nikamma comes under the radar and gets shot left, right, up and down.The film is about Nikamma Adi (Abhimanyu Dassani), who is very fond of his elder brother, Raman (Samir Soni). After the arrival of Raman's wife, Avni (Shilpa Shetty), Adi becomes lonely. He shifts to Dhamli with Avni and becomes a household servant, much to his annoyance. Then appears our villain, Vikramjit (Abhimanyu Singh), who wants to get rid of honest RTO officer Avni, but he has to face the hurdle of Adi. Nikamma has two big twists at the end, and those are additional changes from the original film, Middle Class Abbayi. Yes, they work (not logically), but not enough to save the film. The screenplay is terribly outdated and doesn't entertain you at all in the long runtime of two and a half hours. Why was it so long? You leave the auditorium scratching your head over this question.Shilpa Shetty is the only saving grace here. She is the only actor who actually performs here. Her character, too, has a lot of surprises, so her screen presence and comeback are definitely enjoyable for her fans. Abhimanyu Dassani delivers a performance he would love to forget as soon as possible, whereas Shirley Setia looks totally clueless in her debut — except for the gorgeous face and glam appeal. Abhimanyu Singh presents a weak villain compared to Vijay Varma's phenomenon in MCA. The supporting cast is barely noticeable.The music album by Amaal Mallik, Javed Mohsin, Vipin Patwa and Gourav Dasgupta hasn't got anything to make groove. The original Nikamma song still looks better even after years than this latest remake version. The background is good, though, and the cinematography is also fine in the action sequences. The fight scenes are shot well, and the editing also adds something to it, but the rest of the show by the technical team is a big letdown. Sabbir Khan's filmography is indeed inconsistent, and Nikamma follows the same trend. After Kambakkht Ishq (2009), he made two successful films, Heropanti (2014) and Baaghi (2016). Then, he again went off track with Munna Michael (2017), and now Nikamma keeps him on the same track. It isn't just a bad remake, but it is also a very insensible adaptation. You can't expect the Hindi audience of 2022 to like the 2017 script, which itself had so many goofs. It should have been scrutinised and cleaned at least, and it might have worked better than what he has made. Venu Sriram should have understood what the Hindi audience wanted, not what his Telugu audience had liked. Nikamma falls flat in every department, except for a few action scenes and Shilpa Shetty's honest efforts. As a whole, a skippable affair, just when the audience is skipping even good films.