Badmashiyaan Review: Dull and Offensive!

Badmashiyaan

Source: General By: Sonia Chopra Critic's Rating: 3/5 Friday 06 March 2015

Movie Title Badmashiyaan Review: Dull and Offensive! Director Amit Khanna

Star Cast Gunjan Malhotra, Siddhant Gupta, Suzaana Mukherjee

The tagline of the film says – 'Fun Never Ends'. That's odd really,because one was waiting for the fun to begin all through the movie.

Take the humour for example that is at once offensive and dull.Note the bank scene where a middle-aged lady is riled as our centralprotagonist Dev (Siddhant Gupta) is not giving her attention. Thencomes a bank robbery situation, and Dev's attempts at soothing her hasher retort, "Are you trying to seduce me?"

She then goes to the police station claiming he molested her. Allthis is supposed to be really funny, as the background score suggests.He defends himself by mentioning her looks and age, making the jokeeven more distasteful.

Then come the generic rape jokes, impolite to both men and women,where even a car is not spared (don't ask). These jokes are in badtaste and unfunny. Also, someone ought to tell the director that it'sno fun for an audience to see the close-up of (what is supposed to be)someone's pee.

Interestingly, what's funnier is the unintentional humour. Likewhen Palak (Gunjan Malhotra) emerges from the bank robbery situationand her friend asks her about Dev. "Bank ki robbery, yaan dil kirobbery?" she asks, not once enquiring if Palak is alright.

The film has a story that may have sounded smart in script-form.Where several stories of the protagonists collide in a flurry ofserendipity, which a character describes as 'Uperwale ki badmashiyaan'(God's mischief).

The film begins with several couples as they take us through theirstories of how they met, romanced, and wed. What sets them apart, andwe as viewers learn this, is that all the stories are inter-related,and each one has affected the other.

We understand that Dev was in love with a girl called Naari(Suzanna Mukherjee). Dev was smitten and even bought a home for themto live in. Prone to wearing tiny baby-doll dresses with toweringheels everywhere, including at home and in the garden (a recurringuniform for the women in the film), Naari's motives went beyondromance.

The film tells us how Dev was talking over the phone while drivingand almost crashed into a cab. That led to several things, like a bushalting abruptly leading to a potential couple to have a romanticencounter. The film follows this pattern of coincidences andinter-relatedness.

In the second half, apart from the romance, the chase forms arounda bagful of money. Sadly, for a film about couples, the chemistry islabored and the synthetic dialogue doesn't help. The unimaginativecinematography and background score are other areas for concern. Acouple of songs are lilting and fun.

The cast is sprightly and earnest, but let down by a dodgy scriptand inadequate execution.Director Amit Khanna gives us a film with a reasonably interestingpremise, but executed in an outdated, offensive and dull manner. Youtruly wish they'd change the title tagline.

Rating: One Star