Directed by Farhad Samji, ‘Bachchhan Paandey’ is the remake of Telugu film ‘Gaddalakonda Ganesh’ which itself was inspired from Tamil film ‘Jigarthanda’. It’s one of those Akshay Kumar movies which has been awaited for a long time. And ever since the trailer for the same was dropped it had created a whole lot of buzz but after watching the film, it feels like a huge let down.
Well, if you have watched the trailer, you have seen the film. The story is quite plain and simple, there’s nothing new or an unexpected surprise factor therr. To tell you a little about it, Myra Devekar played by Kriti Sanon is a struggling film director who wants to make a biopic on a real life gangster. Her search stops at Bhagwa, a small town in Uttar Pradesh, where she finds Bachchhan Paandey- a ruthless gangster, “jiski ek aankh aur dil dono patthar ke hain.”
Myra gets accompanied by her friend Vishu played by Arshad Warsi on this journey. Vishu initially refuses to go to Bhagwa but later gets lured away as Myra offers him the promise of fulfilling his dream of being an actor. They meet Bachchhan Paandey and his gang there which consists of – Pendulum (Abhimanyu Singh), Buferiya Chacha (Sanjay Mishra), Kandi (Saharsh Kumar Shukla), and Virgin (Prateik Babbar). Will Myra and Vishu manage to get out of Bachchhan Paandey’s land or will they end up losing their lives like so many others? Go watch ‘Bachchhan Paandey’ if you are curious enough and can’t guess.
If I talk about the performances, Akshay Kumar is seen here in a grey character of a cold-hearted gangster. Enough effort is put into his looks which is quite visible and no doubt he looks decent enough but fails to generate any fear or terror in the audience’s heart as a gangster is supposed to. But if you’re his fan you might enjoy it as the actor is seen playing such a character after a long time.
Kriti Sanon as Myra Devekar looks absolutely stunning and is one of the rare good things about the film. With ‘Mimi’ the bars which she has raised for herself, she totally holds up to it. And it won’t be any wrong if I say she tried to carry the film all the way but the weak storyline and direction makes it fall apart.
Pankaj Tripathi’s cameo is the saving grace of the film. His comedy scenes will make you laugh until your stomach aches and is undoubtedly the best thing about ‘Bachchhan Paandey’. Arshad Warsi is that one name in Indian Cinema whom I instantly associate with light hearted fun and jolly moments. I have seen him lighting up the screens with his funny roles for a decade now but after watching him in ‘Bachchhan Paandey’ I feel so disappointed as his talent is severely wasted here.
Jacqueline Fernandes who plays Sophie, girlfriend to Paandey, didn’t have much to offer. Her character is pretty much similar to her previous roles. Actors like Seema Biswas, Prateik Babbar, Abhimanyu Singh among others are given such half baked characters and are used as nothing but fillers.
Direction by Farhad Samji is utterly poor – there’s no logic, no sense whatsoever. When an actor like Akshay Kumar also fails to leave his impact this pretty much sums up the direction. The music is also a big let down and the only reason I could think of for the presence of meaningless songs sprinkled here and there, must have been to increase the run time. Dialogues were poorly written which made me cringe hard and in the name of comedy we were served nothing but memes which got popular some time back.
‘Bachchhan Paandey’ which tried to be a typical bollywood masala providing action, romance, drama, comedy, everything at one place failed to serve even one in this attempt. The film itself was a remake of remake and on top of that they went on to reveal everything in the trailer. Is there any reason left to visit the theatres? Time for you to decide.
You can now watch ‘Bachchhan Paandey’ at a cinema near you.
