Friday, February 17, 2006

Bunty Aur Bubbly


Director Shaad Ali dissapoints with this one. After such a well crafted script to work with in Sathiya, B&B is a let down. A story which moves nowhere, for a film that hits cruising gear in the first few shots, it is a ride which is as confusing, mediocre and trite as hindi films get. It is a con film, and a con films strengths are their crisp lines and imaginative con sequences. There was a time when real life con men got their inspiration from films and these sequences were beautifully crafted. For a con film, that is the weakest element in B&B. The best deal B&B get is when they lease the Taj Mahal to a foreigner, leaves a feeling of 'deja vu', we have all thought about it, havent we? Not one of their tricks takes your breath away or gets you fearfully involved in the sheer incredulity of taking people for a ride. In my opinion,Abhishek cannot hold a film on his shoulders, which is made worse when the film is badly written.In the first half of the film, the weakness of the lead actor is glaring. The film find its first foot in place when a side character QQ Qureshi is introduced. The second half of the film is Bachchan Senior's. His ACP character behaves and talks like a police constable and his tone varies from haryanvi hindi to Laloo's hindi. The second half of the film, is sheer indulgence on part of the director where he gets the real life father and son to share a nice length of footage with repeated references to their off screen relationship.


Aishwarya does a item number in which Amitabh is doing his usual drunk routine. Whatever people might say about aishwarya's acting skills and public relations, man she has a BODY. I am telling you this that her body or rather her form is eloquent. Watch the item song in this and you can see the great skin, the soft supple figure and the sheer beauty of her adayain (difficult to translate...but can be called mannerism). I am sorry but that was a necessary digression!


I have not mentioned Rani Mukherjee at all, but that is because I think in mainstream hindi films, the girls just have to pout, cry and be the moral element in the film who brings a wayward hero back to innocence. Now, a girl or rather hindi film actresses have been doing that for years now and some of them shine through even that routine. Well, I dont have a very high opinion of Rani, so you might say I am prejudiced. There are some nice moments in the film and they are provided by the side characters. The first I mentioned is Mr. QQ Qureshi, he is the man who was Apple Singh during the 2001 England World CUP, I cannot seem to remember his name. The second is the staged demonstration in the film, the lead slogan shouting guy is awesome.


Caveat: I watched this movie in May and this review was written on 20 May 2005.

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