Film Review- Bangistan

 

Not Enough Bang For Your Bucks

Film: Bangistan

Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Pulkit Samrat, Kumud Mishra, Jacqueline Fernandez

Directed by: Karan Anshuman

Duration: 2 hrs 15 mins

Rating: * * 

Like many countless other films, Bangistan also has a promising plot somewhere in there but it never realizes it potential. It has a tough time finding its footing as it oscillates between comedy and some serious sermonizing and the two have to be handled with great care like a chef mixing ingredients to make a dish. 

There are a few laughs and chuckles but for most parts it lacks fizz. Religion seems to be one of the latest buzzing topics in Bollywood, particularly Hindu Muslim unity. Bangistan also tries to make a point that religion is not something that particularly enhances lives but it doesn’t really push the envelope while dealing with the subject. 

In this country called Bangistan, Riteish Deshmukh and Pulkit Samrat play a hard lined Muslim and Hindu respectively. They land up in Krakow, Poland for the world religion conference and though they are on a similar mission, their identities are reversed.  

That gives some scope for a few gags and some satire but the film never really takes off.   Jacqueline Fernandez plays a bar girl who is presumed to be Christian but turns out to be an atheist, pity there isn’t much elaboration on that. 

To be fair the script is an equal opportunity offender but sadly the proceedings are drab. Anshuman, a film critic turned director has a tough time juggling between main stream Bollywood song and dance routines and making sense of the story on hand. But in what appears to be a tribute to Kubrick’s The Shining, there’s also a scene in the restroom with red colored walls.  

There is nothing much to harp about as far as the cast is concerned, Pulkit Samrat puts his best foot forward while the otherwise reliable Riteish Deshmukh fails to make much of an impression here. 

In sum, Bangistan doesn’t give enough bang for your bucks. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 9th Aug 2015

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Film Review - Dolly Ki Doli

Hello Dolly

Film: Dolly Ki Doli

Cast: Sonam Kapoor, Rajkummar Rao, Pulkit Samrat

Directed by: Abhishek Dogra

Duration: 1 hr 40 mins

Rating: * * 1 / 2

There aren’t too many films that rest on such a flimsy premise, have very little logic and yet are pleasant, like the cool evening breeze, Dolly Ki Doli directed by debutant Abhishek Dogra  is one of those. One of the reasons for that is the duration, at a little over an hour and a half, 

Dolly’s tale moves at a fairly reasonable pace speed without too much extra baggage.

The plot has similarities to Daawat-E-Ishq but while the Yashraj production got all bogged down by with the serious nature with which it approached the subject, Dolly Ki Doli has a smooth sailing. 

The film gets on with it right from the word go - Dolly (Sonam Kapoor) is a professional con woman who entraps men, marries them and with the blink of an eye, she disappears after cleaning the up the valuables of the in-laws. She has a whole ‘family’ in place as a part of her team which includes a fake father (Manoj Joshi), mother and brother (Mohd. Zeeshan Ayub).

Sonu (Rajkummar Rao) a sugar cane farmer from Haryana is truly madly and deeply in love with her becomes one of her victims followed by Manjot (Varun Sharma of Fukrey fame) who goes against his mummy’s (Archana Puran Singh) wishes to marry her. Hot on the trail of the gang is a cop (Pulkit Samrat) who is interested in Dolly for professional and personal reasons. 

There are plenty of fun moments when the proceedings are lightweight and don’t take themselves seriously. In this day and age, it is not only improbable but impossible for a bride not to be photographed during the whole wedding ceremony. You have to swallow this and some other oddities and once you do that, it is quite enjoyable till it gets all serious in the climax. 

Even though the film centers around Dolly, the star of the show is Rajkummar Yadav who steals every scene that he is present in. Varun Sharma is also spot on as far as his character is concerned and Sonam Kapoor is likable.

For long I have believed that our films would make for much better viewing experience if they are restricted to two hours or under even if the script has flaws. Dolly Ki Doli shows that the theory also works in practice. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 25th January 2015

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