Shukranu review: Divyendu Sharma’s talented act deserved better writing

Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar (2017) was based on the atrocities committed on Indian citizens when prime minister Indira Gandhi clamped the Emergency in June 1975. A part of the film showed officials forcing young men to undergo vasectomies in order to curb India's ballooning population.

The story of Bishnu Dev Halder’s Shukranu (2020), or semen, rests largely on the same compulsory sterilizations carried out by doctors aided by police in pursuit of targets set by the government during the Emergency. And therein lies the problem with Shukranu.

Inder (Divyendu Sharma) is a young man living in a town near the capital Delhi. His marriage has been fixed with Reema (Shweta Basu Prasad). Just two days before his wedding, Inder is seized and forcibly sterilized by a team of doctors and police.

The entire incident is presented in a funny manner, ignoring the fact that there is nothing funny about compulsorily sterilizing a young man who is not even married. You ignore this nonsensical presentation as you are keen to know what happens with Inder in this situation.

The film gains your interest as Inder somehow goes through with the wedding without telling anyone, including his best friend (Aakash Dabhade), that he can't become a father, ever.

After Inder leaves for Delhi for work, he gets a letter from Reema informing him that she is pregnant. The news comes as a jolt to Inder, as you can well imagine. He becomes certain that Reema is having an affair.

Despite this new promise infused by the twist, you can’t help but realize that Shukranu is a victim of lazy writing, as if the writers were in an unseemly hurry to lock the script. Major plot developments are presented as casual incidents. For example, we are not told initially that Inder’s marriage has been fixed. We get to know of this only when the marriage preparations begin. Similarly, the all-important twist of Inder falling for girl-next-door Akriti (Sheetal Thakur) in Delhi is also hardly developed.

Shukranu also has a surprise, though not a pleasant one. What starts off as the tale of a young man who was compulsorily sterilized just before his marriage turns into an extramarital saga with Inder juggling two women, Reema and Akriti!

Now, this is an outdated theme that has been explored innumerable times in the 1990s and 2000s, mostly by Govinda in films like Coolie No 1 (1995). In addition, the sequence where Inder tries to hide his relationship with Akriti when Reema is around instantly brings to mind the hilarious multiplex scene in Anees Bazmee’s No Entry (2005).

The performances try to hide the film’s flaws and succeed to an extent. Divyendu Sharma proves once again his mettle in a tragi-comic role. Though this is not the first time we have seen him do it [his act in the Pyaar Ka Punchnama series is still fresh in the mind], he suits the role perfectly.

Shweta Basu Prasad and Sheetal Thakur are talented. The fomer's extra-large wig is a problem, however. It is too noticeable.

Thankfully, out of nowhere, Shukranu throws a hilarious twist in the very last scene that leaves you in splits. Although it comes too late, it does cover up for at least some of the damage.