Saturday, 9 March 2013

Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster Returns

The disappointing aspect about Bollywood is not the lack of talent.  I am quite certain that there are truck loads of people who are exceptionally but for some inexplicable reason, they land up making random commercial cinema which I am quite certain even they aren’t proud of.  Tigmanshu Dhulia definitely falls in this list of people.

I was not particularly impressed with Saheb Biwi or Gangster for the same reasons that I haven’t been impressed with the sequel.  The story continues from where it left off in the earlier part with Aditya Pratap (Jimmy Sheirgill) resigned to a wheel chair thanks to the injury in the climax fight. 
 
Moving on to the other characters Chhoti Rani (Mahie Gill) is as drunk as ever and continues to act like there is no tomorrow – give it a break Mahie – you were not, you are not and you can never be a Meena Kumari.  From the previous part Kanhaiyya is also alive and for those who came in late, he is now known as the man who cannot die despite getting shot in the heart.
 
Then there are few more characters coming in who coincidentally add the much needed value that prevents SBGR from being an absolute disaster.  Ranjana (Soha Ali Khan – who I have always loved) is a princess from a neighbouring state ruled by Binny Uncle (Raj Babbar).  And stealing the show is Inderjeet Singh (Irrfan Khan) who comes from the province across the river.
 
Inderjeet’s family has been all but destroyed by Aditya Pratap’s over several fights many moons ago.  It is now time for Inderjeet to take revenge by first getting Aditya Pratap to lose his power, his self respect and then eventually, if required, his life as well.  All through a well thought out scheme that involves the love of his life – Ranjana
 
SBGR is a convoluted revenge drama that doesn’t pick up any pace whatsoever throughout the 2.5 hours that you wait for some speed to set in.  Tigmanshu Dhulia fails to increase the pace except for a couple of occasions towards the end.  By that time, you have probably lost your interest in the movie.
 
The movie survives on performances from everyone except Mahie Gill (refer to earlier comments).  I have been pleasantly surprised by Jimmy Sheirgill with his controlled and yet “regal” performance with the right points of intensity. Even in the odd shot where he shares space with the superb Irrfan Khan, he seems unperturbed to his credit.  Raj Babbar and Soha Ali Khan are both very good as well.
 
At the end of the day, SBGR is not a BO success in my books.  A simple story line that fails due to a weak script, average screenplay / dialogues and an absolute lack of pace.  Disappointing – once again only because it could have been so much better.  Hope to see that from Tigmanshu Dhulia the next time around. 5 on 10.
 

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