Sony Pictures International Productions and Sabbir Khan Films’ Nikamma (UA) is the story of a good-for-nothing guy and his sister-in-law.
Adi (Abhimanyu Dassani) is good for nothing. His only plus point is that he has a photographic memory. His elder brother, Raman (Samir Soni), is married to Avni (Shilpa Shetty). Adi can’t see eye to eye with Avni because she is a disciplinarian and wants Adi to use his time fruitfully.
Adi is forced to accompany Avni to a small town where she is posted. There, Avni rubs the influential Vikramjeet Bisht (Abhimanyu Singh), who is an MLA aspirant, the wrong way. That does it! Vikramjeet swears revenge but Adi comes to sister-in-law Avni’s rescue. However, Vikramjeet vows to eliminate her by hook or by crook. Does the good-for-nothing Adi succeed in saving Avni? There’s also a romantic track between Adi and Natasha (Shirley Setia).
The film is an official remake of Telugu Middle Class Abbayi. Venu Sriram’s story and screenplay and Sabbir Khan’s additional screenplay have a lot of Telugu flavour because of which they do not quite appeal to the pan-India audience. The screenplay also has some weak links. Why Avni is always so curt with Adi is not explained. If she has Adi’s good at heart, the least she can do is to be courteous to him. It almost looks like she is carrying her strict professional avatar to her home also. The screenplay is so devoid of conviction that it fails to involve the audience which, therefore, passively watches the drama unfold. The character of Adi suddenly changes so dramatically that it is difficult for the viewers to digest this. He is shown to be so strong and brave after a point that he can take on tens of goons single-handedly. The entire track of Adi following Avni like a shadow for six days looks unrealistic and hence it does not have the desired emotional impact. The disappearance of Raman looks contrived as it is difficult to imagine that anyone can be so one-track-minded, least of all someone like Adi who wants to take no chances about the safety of Avni. Did he not even think that Vikramjeet could target Raman to have his way, especially after Raman himself has told Avni and Adi that Vikramjeet insisted that Raman should join Avni for their wedding anniversary celebrations? Why would a sworn enemy insist on his target’s husband spending time with her? It is the weak links like the above which prompt the viewers to completely lose interest in the drama. Sanamjit Talwar’s dialogues are mostly routine.
Abhimanyu Dassani is earnest but to show him as a Sunny Deol or a Salman Khan is definitely a bad idea. Obviously, his character fails to appeal. Shilpa Shetty does a fair job as Avni. Since her character does not have much variation, her performance remains uni-dimensional. Shirley Setia suffers on account of a weird characterisation. Her acting is dull. Abhimanyu Singh does an average job as Vikramjeet Bisht. Samir Soni fails to impress in the role of Raman. Sachin Khedekar performs honestly and sincerely as Chachaji. Anjuman Saxena makes her mark as Chachiji. Rajesh Balwani (as Natasha’s father) has his moments. Vikram Gokhale is sincere as Major Yashwant. Naren Kumar (as Tipu), Mayur More (as Biswa) and Samar Shukla (as Chetak) lend ordinary support. Musharraf Khan (as Umesh) is alright. Sudesh Lehri (as Sir), Seema Bora (as Natasha’s mother), Sanjeev Bhatia (as the RTO commissioner), Raj Premi (as Bhaisaab), Samrat Sehgal (as Darshi), Sachin Shetty, Shaan Kakkar, Mukesh Agrihari (all three as henchmen), Sushil Rastogi (as the Super cab driver), Priyamvada Singh (as the doctor), Pawan Arora (as the nurse), Aarti Kulkarni (as the maid), and the rest lend ordinary support.
Sabbir Khan’s direction is rather poor as his narration fails to engage the audience. Music (Amaal Malik, Javed-Mohsin, Vipin Patwa and Gourov Dasgupta) is routine. The remixed ‘Nimamma’ song is quite good but the other songs are ordinary. Lyrics (Kumaar and Danish Sabri) are average. Song picturisations (by Ganesh Acharya and Adil Shaikh) are quite nice. John Stewart Eduri’s background music is below the mark. Hari K. Vedantam’s cinematography is so-so. Action scenes and stunts (by Anl Arasakumar and Sunil Rodrigues) are not very exciting. Production designing (by Anshita Sethia and Tajamul Shaikh) and art direction (by Vijay Godne and Praveen Kumar) are of average standard. Manan Sagar’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Nikamma has ‘flop’ written all over it.
Released on 17-6-’22 at Inox (daily 4 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Sony Pictures Films India Pvt. Ltd. Publicity: dull. Opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was pathetic everywhere.