Director: Shubh Mukherjee Cast: Shubh Mukherjee, Chitrak Bandhopadyay, Saurabh Shukla, Raghivir Yadav Do not get deceived by the modest face-value of Shakal Pe Mat Ja assuming it to be of the low-on-star value but high-on-humour quotient varieties. The film starts as a seeming spin-off on last year's cult-comedy Tere Bin Laden but ends up being a commotional comedy-of-errors (rather erroneous comedy) treading into the Priyadarshan-Anees Bazmee zone.

So the film's actor-writer-director Shubh Mukherjee plays Aniket, who with his group of friends, aspires to make a documentary film on terror attacks. And you can actually see Aniket's attempt at making a college project film resulting into an amateurish filmmaking attempt by Shubh Mukherjee.

While taking random video shots within the international airport vicinity, the boys are taken into custody by police and detained at airport under suspicion of being terrorists. A potbellied anti-terrorist officer (Saurabh Shukla) comes to investigate. Amidst all this, one Omama Bin Laden, who heads some terrorist group Al Bakaida, is planning an actual attack at the airport.

Noise, disorder and confusion ensue for hours until Shubh comes to the point - to launch himself as the hero. And for that he just has to diffuse a bomb by snipping off one of the red-green-blue wires - a trademark gimmick of the 80s potboilers. Only if bomb diffusing and filmmaking were so easy, a lot more souls would have been saved.

Despite starting on a promising premise, writer-director Shubh Mukherjee isn't able to develop the plot in an interesting way and the potential for a fresh comedy is substituted by a formulaic film. The boys remain detained for more that half of the film and with nothing substantial happening through their confinement (other than repeated and redundant interrogation sessions), the narrative turns static and one-dimensional. The remaining film turns into a (supposed) comedy of mistaken identities inside the airport premises with beings and bags shifting hands every ten minutes.

The tone of the comedy, though not slapstick, is juvenile, inconsistent and ineffective at places. Neither is it supported by witty lines, nor by good comic-timed performances. The second half goes on and on and seems like an endless exercise where every character shouts their lungs out. An India-Pakistan live cricket match that plays in parallel has no relevance whatsoever with the central plot.

Shubh Mukherjee makes an earnest effort but gets the tone of humour wrong as the director. As an actor his dialogue delivery is suggestive of Shahid Kapoor, his acting is reminiscent of Riteish Deshmukh but, in totality, he comes across as a cheap imitation of Ali Zafar. Chitrak Bandhopadyay, employed as a prototype to the fat-bearded comic sidekick in films like Hangover or Delhi Belly, is not half as amusing. The only thing he makes noise for is his flatulent farting and fake firang accent. Child actor Pratik Katare isn't partially as funny as he was in Paa. Harsh Parekh lacks screen presence. Saurabh Shukla keeps 'shouting' at everyone around to lower their voice. Raghuvir Yadav appears malnourished. Pretty face Umang Jain is underused in an inconsequential role (once again after Love Breakups Zindagi). Aamna Shariff is hardly there. And why is Joy Sengupta even there. The film essentially had in it to be a humble entertainer but it's unfortunate that the potential couldn't be tapped appropriately. So Shakal Pe Mat Ja... apni akal lagaa.