Planet Bollywood Review Link
http://planetbollywood.com/displayReview.php?id=f071312023925
Entertainment coupled with a weak story, a weaker screenplay, and complete lack of common sense– Bol Bachchan has all the exact ingredients of cooking a 100 crore dish. The movie and its box office collection reflects the average film making for the average film going audience that Bollywood has currently ended up in. The story is inspired (the new term we use for copied) from legendary Golmaal (yes this time they copied the story in place of name) and fails to create the same vibe. The dialogues partly inspired by senior Bachchan movies and partly by the done-to-death inept English speaking dimwit roles that we have seen fail to make a lasting impact. Its inability to recreate Hrishikesh Mukherjee feel makes you remember and miss Hrishi-da all the more. For most of the English speaking role of Ajay Devgn, you might recall Chupke Chupke’s Dharmendra for the play on language.
Sajjid- Farhad’s dialogues need some mention here as they try to save the lack of novelty in story (Yunus Sajawal). Though the dialogues too were mostly inspired (the first one it reminded me of was Swades’ mela ram saying “apni chaukhat ka dia and giving light to neighbours place”). Cinematography (Dudley) is pretty impressive in a couple of scenes not connected to the story but during songs. Else it’s the usual Rohit Shetty film with spinning camera continuously running over trollies. Steven Bernard’s editing had a lot of scope of shortening the movie, which it did not. Background music is nothing extraordinary. Action of course is at a level that befits Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn’s prior works, but is unnecessary most of the times.
http://planetbollywood.com/displayReview.php?id=f071312023925
Entertainment coupled with a weak story, a weaker screenplay, and complete lack of common sense– Bol Bachchan has all the exact ingredients of cooking a 100 crore dish. The movie and its box office collection reflects the average film making for the average film going audience that Bollywood has currently ended up in. The story is inspired (the new term we use for copied) from legendary Golmaal (yes this time they copied the story in place of name) and fails to create the same vibe. The dialogues partly inspired by senior Bachchan movies and partly by the done-to-death inept English speaking dimwit roles that we have seen fail to make a lasting impact. Its inability to recreate Hrishikesh Mukherjee feel makes you remember and miss Hrishi-da all the more. For most of the English speaking role of Ajay Devgn, you might recall Chupke Chupke’s Dharmendra for the play on language.
The background music and the looks of the protagonist makes you remember a better made Singham, and yet for most part of the film the character looks like a spoof on Singham. It has flying cars and prop assisted Darasinghified (god bless his soul) fight sequences like all other Rohit Shetty films but misses the pulse. Presence of dedicated comedians like Krishna and VIP and Asrani in unnecessary character sketches reminds you of the times when Johnny Lever and Kader Khan used to light up the screen in their roles for comic relief. Infact it would even make you miss Rohit Shetty’s very own Golmaal famed – Arshad Warsi, Sharman Joshi even Tusshar Kapoor and Vrajesh Hirjee. Bol Bachchan has a strange deja-vu like feeling with all aspects of movie making. Don’t get me wrong, the movie isn’t bad. It is a lazy film. It neither wants to say anything new nor does it want to say anything that is already said in a different way.
Bol Bachchan is a story of Abbas Ali (Abhishek Bachchan), who moves to Ranakgadh headed by Prithviraj Raghuvanshi (Ajay Devgn) for certain circumstances and has to pose as Abhishek Bachchan (Oh yes that is his onscreen name as well) in front of Prithvi. Prithvi’s old lover who died in a car crash looked exactly like Abhishek Bachchan’s sister Sania (Asin) and Prithvi’s sister Radhika (Prachi Desai) eventually falls for Abhishek Bachchan (for lack of a better hero in the film). And then there is comedy of errors ala Golmaal the original one. The background score shouts “Khatra” just the way you would have heard “Golmal hai bhai sab Golmal hai”, which I think was much better used even in Hera Pheri. There is a motley of crowd in Zohra bai (Archana Puran Singh), Ravi Shashtri (Krishna), Shashtri (Abhishek), VIP and all helping the lead Palactor (inspired from Palekar).
To give the credit where it is due, the movie has some moments of genuine laughter; especially a couple of scenes with Archana Puran Singh which are memorable. Don’t miss how while posing as Abhishek’s mother she simply effortlessly gets in to her real character of Johrabai singing “ye hai reshmi zulfon ka andhera…” Last time you would have seen her act with so much restrain and subtlety was probably in Jalwa. She is very good. Ajay Devgn does a seemingly impossible task of carrying the role, the lines and the film in turn on his shoulders successfully. BolBachchan is a movie where everyone spoofs himself in jest and pack is led by Ajay Devgn. Abhishek Bachchan overacts to fill his 2 roles with the extra bit of acting. Krishna, VIP and Asrani are well placed and do their non-existent part with conviction. Neeraj Vora hams for most of his part. Asin stands, smiles, dances and looks nice. So does Prachi Desai. Though her looks would surprise you - She looks peach and almost 5 years younger than in Rock On!
Sajjid- Farhad’s dialogues need some mention here as they try to save the lack of novelty in story (Yunus Sajawal). Though the dialogues too were mostly inspired (the first one it reminded me of was Swades’ mela ram saying “apni chaukhat ka dia and giving light to neighbours place”). Cinematography (Dudley) is pretty impressive in a couple of scenes not connected to the story but during songs. Else it’s the usual Rohit Shetty film with spinning camera continuously running over trollies. Steven Bernard’s editing had a lot of scope of shortening the movie, which it did not. Background music is nothing extraordinary. Action of course is at a level that befits Rohit Shetty and Ajay Devgn’s prior works, but is unnecessary most of the times.
On the whole the movie with all its shortcomings and surprising laziness is an entertaining film for efforts of a few who acts well. In cinema, there is a thin line between art and entertainment. Bol Bachchan surely tries hard to be classified as entertainment but just falls short of it.
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