Shikari is one hell of a mess and primarily because the director has handled the subject with no conviction and ends up with a convoluted fare with little to commend it.

The film opens in South Africa where masala king Rawal (Nirmal Pandey) married to Suman (Tabu) and sister Rajeshwari (Karisma) rules the business community. Singhania, an old and disfigured businessman from India enters the field and throws a challenge to Rawal. Rawal sets up a "shikar" with Singhania only to find, in his tussling with Singhania that it is actually Om (Govinda) who is parading as the businessman.

Om murders Rawal and arrives at his home to lead the condolence party. Rajeshwari, in the meantime is hot on the heels on the killer and once even accuses Om of being the murderer but he provides her with a story that he could not have been the man. But we all know that Om is the murderer but we don't know why. Now blossoms the love story of Rajeshwari and Om despite him committing two more murders in the interim period. Finally, when Rajeshwari goes to confess her love for Om to her bhabhi Suman, Suman does not approve of the match and slowly all is revealed.

N Chandra has made a mess out of this one, showing none of his narrative control that he had in some of his earlier films. His intention to show Govinda in a different role falls flat because the films jerks from thriller to pathetic scenes of comedy to rotten songs. All extremely tedious. What is unforgivable is the fact that the director cheats the audience with the script. To expand on this would be giving the story away and hence I leave it to the very few who will see this limp effort to understand what I mean.

This is not a tale of passion, of obsession or revenge although you are lead to believe that it is all these things. Even if the director intended this to be the case, it is at best superficial. It is somewhat refreshing to see Govinda not playing his usual buffoonish roles but he does not make for a convincing Om. He tries his best but his character is sketched in such a way that there is no conviction attached to it at all.

Karisma has a decent role and shouts her way through the film. This is not a performance to write home about. In comparison, in a less showy role, Tabu stands out. Even in a disaster like this, she brings a certain class to this affair with a restrained and convincing performance yet again. Nirmal Pandey is OTT and one wonders why he does such terrible roles. The music is simply atrocious, the only song which passes muster being Bahut Khoobsurat ghazal by Kumar Sanu. On the whole, a huge mess which could have been interesting in the hands of a director more in control of his medium.