Bandook

There was a time when the anti-hero was king in Bollywood.  A trend that was started by Khalnayak with Sanju Baba essaying a role that very few can probably come close to.  And over the years there have been movies which have tried to capitalizing the concept without understanding the finer nuances of playing an anti-hero.  Bandook adds to this long list of movies where you say, “Forgive them lord for they know not what they do”.

 

In essence, the confusion or should I say flawed execution of the movie comes from the confusion of who was directing it in the first place.  IMDB gives credit to 3 people Aditya Om, Kamal Malhotra & Nikhil Verma.  But a lot of other sites call out only Aditya Om – who by the way also plays the lead role of Bhola Kevat – our attempted anti hero.  Yet another saying comes to mind – “Too many cooks spoil the broth”.

 

So we have Bhola – who begins his movement to being a contract killer when he gets picked up by a nasty cop – Puttu Tiwari (Gauri Shankar).  Tiwari actually saves Bhola from a bunch of villagers who have crucified (literally) Bhola and are pelting him with stones.  But Puttu actually wants Bhola to be a solution for his lust. 

 

Bhola is saved in the nick of time by one Lochan Singh Yadav (Arshad Khan) who eventually teaches Bhola the importance of a gun (bandook) in the territory of Eastern UP. Lochan also eventually gets into the gang that matters – Hari Om Tripathi (Ashish Kotwal).  And slowly but surely Bhola learns the ropes and of course becomes a little too big for the “Powers that be”.

 

Aditya Om or whoever it is that directed the movie needs to be told in no unclear words that hurling crude local profanities does not a movie make.  There are other aspects such as editing, cinematography and of course acting that go into making a movie.  I guess the gang forgot to attend Cinema 101 when they were in film school (if at all they went to film school that is).

 

Unnecessary long shots and oddly placed songs litter the nearly 3 hours that you have to tolerate Bandook.  And as if that wasn’t enough, the character of Tripathi moves from being a murdering politician to one who has pearls of wisdom dropping out of him every now and then.  Leaves you utterly confused as to what or who exactly is this animal called Tripathi.  In all, a waste of time this movie.  But – and I will say this all through the year – better than Rajdhani Express & Dehradun Diary.  3 on 10.

 

And yes, how does a deaf mute girl understand that she is being called a mistress when she is oblivious to everything else.  Disastrous debut for Manisha Kelkar (the only woman in the story).  Pretty much destroys any hope she had in Bollywood.  Will take a lot to come back from this one.

 

Trailer on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjLpwcsndz0