Bachchan Pandey
Director: Farhad Samji
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kriti Sanon, Akshay Kumar, Jacqueline Fernandez, and Pankaj Tripathi
In the past few years, films have undergone a sea-change in terms of content. Hindi films seem to have moved past that phase where a movie with a big star would have guaranteed success. Even though we’ve grown up on the staple diet of desi food, we’ve cultivated a taste for Italian, Chinese, Thai, and Mexican cuisine, and mind you South India too!
The experience with Bachchan Pandey is like, you enter a posh restaurant, waiting for a sumptuous meal to be served, but what’s served on your plate is vada-pav. Arbitrarily packing in elements of every genre without actually bothering to stop and see if the mix does work, Bachchan Pandey is like an overcooked stew.
Starring Akshay Kumar, Kriti Sanon, Arshad Warsi, and Jacqueline Fernandez, the film takes you back to the 80s and 90s Bollywood, when illogical situations, blood, and gore, for no rhyme or reason, were the main ingredients and made the audience break into claps. Sorry, the formula doesn’t work anymore.
Seriously, what was director Farhad Samji thinking when he wrote this apology of a script? It’s perfectly okay to pay homage to the masala films of yore, but the new interpretation has to be contemporary, you need to change with the times. They say too many cooks spoil the broth. The wafer-thin plot with unnecessary twists and turns written by six writers just muddles the film.
The plot is heavily borrowed from the Telugu film ‘Gaddalakonda Ganesh’ which was the remake of the Tamil hit ‘Jigarthanda’. The basic premise is about an assistant director who aspires to become a big director. She decides to direct a film based on a gangster. In search of a gangster, he finds the ruthless gangster named Bachchan Pandey.
The one thing that you realise after watching the film is, no amount of gloss, glam, and top-notch stars can ever substitute for a riveting script. Great stars, great styling, great songs, and great visuals work as long as the script is great. Packaged snazzily with glossy-finish camerawork, exotic locations, and fancy costumes, every frame of the film probably cost lakhs to put together, but it still feels like a hollow piece in the end because the story doesn’t hold.
The best way to relish this film is by arranging your expectations of it. Let’s get real – there is no novelty to what plays out. There is some fun to be had if you have an interest in either action or comedy, or both. Off the cast, it is only Warsi who stands out. His comic relief is a cherry on the top. He is the real treat. Sanon does a fine job too and gets the maximum screen-time. Her camaraderie and banter with Warsi are the stand-out scenes in the film. Fernandez is relegated to the backseat.
Kumar looks menacing and sleepwalks through a role that is made for him. The movie bestows him with abundant opportunities to flaunt each shade of his skill. His fans are going to have one helluva time at this freak show.
If you savour a typical out-and-out masala movie, this one’s for you. Others, avoid it! Moreover, the film’s tagline reads, ‘Holi pe goli.’ But after watching the film, you will surely need ‘a headache ki goli.’
