Lying unsold for more than a year, Shararat sees the light of day on the heels of an expected upturn in Abhishek’s fortunes on the tails of Om Jai Jagdish which itself has collapsed at the box office. Well, Shararat will do little or nothing for Abhishek even though, a film it really is not that bad.

Rahul (Abhishek Bachchan) is a rich brat, indulged to the extreme by his parents. During one of his escapades with his cronies in his multicoloured American monster of a car, he turns off the traffic lights at a busy cross-roads which results in a plethora of accidents, almost like dodgem cars bumping into one another. Rahul is sentenced to community service of sorts at old old people’s home which, it is hoped, will reform this brat into a more responsible and caring person.

Into this fray jumps an investigative reporter (Hrishitaa Bhatt) who wants to document the “reformation” of this spoilt brat. Of course, nothing like that happens for the most part and one is then left to see the various oldies, singing dancing and bemoaning their family situations which has caused them to end up in this Old People’s home. Of course, you the benign lawyer (Mohnish Bahl), who runs the home, so sugary sweet and nice than you know immediately that he is the nigger in the woodpile and one who is going to turn the story on its head by being the villain of the piece.

How Rahul eventually finds a conscience and becomes involved with these oldies forms the crux of the story.

The film does raise relevant issues and to that extent, is involving at a level. If there is at all any interest in the film, it is because of all the oldies, Amrish Puri and Helen in particular who bring a degree of pathos and feeling to their roles and to the film itself. It is a film which could easily have been made in the 70s by someone like Hrishikesh Mukherjee with a degree of success. Gurudev Bhalla has a nice story idea but he fails to execute it on any level.

There is no real development in the character of the protagonist Rahul in the film. He starts off as a harmless brat and for much of the film, remains unaffected and on the periphery of things. This is no “dushman”, the Rajesh Khanna Meena Kumari film where the drunken truck driver is sent to the widow’s home to atone for his sins. There is no drama or real feeling here, neither is his turnaround very convincing and the course that the proceedings are hardly driven by him. With such a weak protagonist, the film is dependent on the other characters in the film and bearing that in mind, it is almost left to Amrish Puri to walk away with hero status.

Abhishek Bachchan has nothing much to do and one really might not have noticed his presence in the film if it weren’t for the fact that he gets top billing in the film. He does not bring any feeling or sensitivity to his role and does not create any empathy or sympathy with the audience.
Hrishita Bhatt makes less of an impression than she did in Asoka. Nope, not a good launch for her.

The supporting cast is full of oldies..daisy irani, Shobha Khote, A.K Hangal, Viju Khote, Dara Singh etc. They add a certain charm to the film and one certain feels for them, something that the director is able to bring out. But its badly directed and interspersed with dull and boring songs following the very unconvincing love track. Yawn yawn. Try again Abhishek. On the basis of this effort, you have miles to go...