Bhagam Bhag – Not so bad
All the talk about BB being not a good film makes me wonder. I went into it with the least of expectations, having heard of all the noise about it being unfair to Govinda, showing signs of a tired cast, a not funny Paresh Rawal, and this and that…
Let me say this, I haven’t seen a better handled comedy flick this year, save Khosla Ka Ghosla, a you-blink-you-miss screenplay, a strong story, make it a viewer’s delight.
Priyadarshan takes a new backdrop in this one-Theatre.
Though one might question why does his theatre only consist of Item numbers, the fun is worth a dekko nonetheless. Priyan has a sea of stories with him from his Malayalam kitty, and the richness of twists n tales indicate that. But there is a problem here, having being conditioned on brainless comic capers a la David Dhawan, one does not keep room for so much thinking, I would rather do a thesis in Amphibian Food Habits in the Taiga Belt than try and put my mind to cracking the intricate plot justifications given in the film towards the end. You can almost see it coming, “OK, I will explain you how its not just a comedy flick, you see the murder wasn’t what you saw it was, it was all planned…..there is a deeper murkier epic tale behind my mystical appearance and disappearance…..blah blah….yawn…..”
No comparison between Govinda and Akshay. They both complete each other. It’s a treat watching them while they fight for smaller things, innocent in a mature way, an innocence which is now the hallmark of Priyan films.
He cleverly uses Govinda, which accidentally or not, works well for his character vying to play the ‘hero’. One can appreciate his effervescence and electric presence even in the so called ‘sidelined’ role, his knack for improvised magic, he could well become the new Kishore Kumar, the same textured smile, the same thought out mirth, his comfort level with actors junior and senior alike, his suppressed aggression, you could see him almost die for that one line that one grand laughable line. I don’t know if I read too much into this otherwise no brainer, but I am just expressing what I felt through the film.
Akshay is almost a master of his game now, a true successor of Chi Chi Bhaiya. He is a delight in the troubled, cursed, deprived, kicked-in-the-ass-by-fate, too-poor-to-afford-Mach3, cribbing, running-like-Milkha-Singh for one reason or none roles.
Paresh Rawal is good as usual, I preferred him in this one than in Phir Hera Pheri, Garam Masala, or any other spate of flicks that have trickled down like tears from Tulsi’s glycerine eyes over the last year or two. His quintessential +10 chashma is there like a constant presence in a sequence too for all the Baburao lovers(no pun intended).
I wish someone would use the brilliance of Sharat Saxena in a longer and better role one day. He fills depth in whatever little he gets to do. Same(a little less) with Shakti ‘crime master gogo’ Kapoor.
Among the best sequences of the film would be a crazy horror track, the London Taxi trip to Germany, ‘Malik, F ulta likhti hai’, a try-not-to-laugh-i-will-give-you-a-better-climax climax and so on. I wish their was a quirlier, madcap cop than the stiff Jackie Shroff. Arbaaz Khan seems to have found himself a permanent chair in all Priyan films now.
I don’t know whether the ‘kabhi sharmayegi ae-o’ title track was snipped by my theatre but I would have loved it in the ending titles. The Afreen track is done very well, ‘Signal’ comes too early to react.
Beyond the film, I thought this would be the last Bhaago Bhaago kinda film I would see, but I have a feeling it will never stop. Mainstream seems to have found pleasure in reinventing the wheel. Good for them. At least they don’t try aliens and save-the-world for a change. Go see Bhagam Bhag,I agree I might have liked it for some stupid associations and silly reasons(I can be termed clinically ‘demented‘, i liked Don and Dhoom 2), but its not as bad as painted all over.
Tushar Shukla
Tags: Direction, Malayalam, Teaching Film-making
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Really??
In that case I might just go and watch it.
But I find with Priyans comedies, you can either take ‘em or leave ‘em…e.g, ‘Hera Pheri’, ‘Hungama’, ‘Chup chup Ke’ were enjoyable, but ‘Garam Masala’, ‘Hulchul’ and ‘Yeh Tera Ghar…’ were quite simply terrible!
Yes, I know not many will agree…
Chalo, lets see what they’ve done now!:-”:-”
i thik priyaD is repeating his so called ruing sucess formula in most of his films like .Garam Masala’, ‘Hulchul.Hungama’, ‘Chup chup Ke’…..u wud simply catch up all the characters running either in the climax or in some high drama energetic seq…
a schene “where so many people tries to sit in a car and they keep coming out frm the windows..”..has been repeatedly shoot by him in most of his flims…..
Tushar …. i havent seen priyan’s films for a long time … i feel the man is kind of gone down the drain…
Where is the man who gave us gardish ???? and hera pheri ????
PD movies aren’t always bad, okay they are pretty bad but watchable at least once if in the mood. I’m sure I’ll watch this movie if it airs on TV but I couldn’t see myself going out of my way to catch this at the cinema.
Would be good to see Govinda at his best again, he really did go down hill with the quantity movies he was churning out.
Kartik, completely agree. Cent percent true.
Tushar, U liked Dhoom2 ????~X(~X(:-?8-}^:)^%-(:-w=))….dont know how to react!!!
Tushar
I have to disagree. I watched this movie recently. It’s the most unbelievable crap that I have seen from Priyadarshan in recent times. This guy is another person we need to add to the stable of Dharmesh Darshan and Subhash Ghai who should stop making movies at least till they get their movie making skills back.
Sorry, came out of this movie with a bad headache…thinking why for God’s sake did I think he may have changed…
Six Degrees of Seperation
1 – Priyan claimed his Virasat was better than Thevar Magan
2 – He said If you cried a mug full for Titanic you will cry buckets after Doli Sajake Rakhna
3 – He made Hulchal and Hungama
4 – He made Kyun Ki and declared in the promos the film had to be seen Kyun ki….it’s Priyadarshan [remember the megalomaniacal promos]
5 – He made Malamal Weekly and had all his actors in the climax fitting into one pathetic frame.
6 – He once made Gardish and Sazaaye Kalapani….and now caters to the same people who “q” outside an udipi rest. every sunday for “itly” and “sambar” and “chutni”
VC – what was so crap about it then? what didn’t click with you?
oh shit vasan .. i almost forgot saza-e-kalapani .. another classic film….
Wat the heck is wrong with the man !!!!
Watching his recent movies are a saza-e-kalapani themselves.
Sangeeta
The comedy in general was not great…
1. most of the times it felt that akshay kumar was just going through the proceedings…there was this attitude coming through which said – for god’s sake let’s get this done with…u have to see the unkempt look he has..not a cool unkempt look..but the ‘oh god..why did I forget to shave today…I feel like scratching my beard so bad’ kind of unkempt look…and it also unfortunately shows his age…
2. the story had hopes of being good…but it had too much of stupidity to make any sense out of it…there were people running all the time…but it seemed without any reason…
3. there’s a bit about these gandhi and his two side-kicks (one’s the person who played ronnie-the main villain I think in Ghulam and other’s some kind of east european guy they have picked up from the streets)…they are trying to exchange drugs thorughout the movie…it’s so awful that it’s unbelievable…
4. there’s the bit about shakti kapoor…which is aweful
5. there’s the bit about they all jumping into the cab to go to germany…which has u beating ur head on the seat in front of you…
6. there’s the bit about they all running around the corner..and they start running back…and u r thinking what’s happening…and there’s a dog after them…where the f*** did the dog come into the picture…no one knows…next instant…akshay kumar and rajpal yadav…move out of the running game..and u can see the dog still running after the goons…and u r thinking what the f*** was that….
7. you have to see the ending to believe the crap reason that’s given to the whole murder mystery angle that gets introduced midway through the story…
8. and if one thought that now that we know the reason for the supposedly suicidal tendencies that lara dutta keeps showing in the movie…the movie ends…one is so wrong…and there’s one final craze-fest of people getting thrown all over the place…hanging from trees…hanging from buildings…statues…getting thrown into windows…etc…I was at this point literally holding my head in my hands..and cursing why did I come to watch this tripe…
I remember reading somewhere ( was it oz when reviewing dhoom2) that there’s a difference between expecting to leave ur brains at home while watching it…and leaving ur brains back home while making it…this unfortunately is a case for the latter
Ah now that puts paints a better picture VC.
These movies usually come out during festival/holiday season too so i think that add’s to it’s box office success, people have nothing better to do so go check out a picture.
@Steve, I don’t know but for some reason I have liked all of Priyan’s comedies. I haven’t seen chup chup ke, for me the weakest ones would be garam masala and ye tera ghar, BB to an extent too. Ye tera ghar was more of a situational drama, I liked few parts in it. The film I really loved was Doli Sajake Rakhna, I never felt the same freshness in any of his films again. I have seen it over and over, and happily laughed and cried. Don’t expect too much out of BB, like I said I am a demented case, I liked Dhoom 2.
@karthik, sir, kahaan gardish kahaan ye sab! That was pure class, so was kaalapani. He tried rekindling his magic with Jackie in Kabhi na kabhi and being a loyal priyan n rahman fan I saw that too, but it looked jaded, old, canned and nothing like anything you would like to enjoy. Surprisingly the film was written by Javed Akhtar.
@sangeeta, this aint govinda at his best or anywhere close to it, but it is a notch above the B graders he used to appear in on an assembly line scale.
@phoenixnu, I am seeing my doctor soon after writing this comment!
@VC, agree with your opinion.
@vasnbala, it wasn’t priyan, it was the pompous overconfident producers in Kyun Ki responsible for the stupid name and campaign.
Ah Priyan; how I love to hate the man! He has a real penchant for remaking Malayalam (or sometimes) greats into Hindi:
Gardish – Kireedom
Muskurahat – Kilukkam
Viraasat – Thevar Magan
Hera Pheri – Ramjirao Speaking
Doli Sajake Rakhna – Aniyathipravu
Hulchul – Godfather (M)
Hungama – Poochakku Oru Mookkuthi
Yeh Tera.. – Sanmanassullavarkku Samadhanam
Malamaal Weekly – Ned Divine
Kyun Ki – Thalavattom
Garam Masala – Boeing Boeing
..the list goes on. These are not merely inspired, but scene-by-scene, frame-by-frame reconstructions. And mind you, the Mallu / Tamil films were mostly NOT made by Priyan, so its not ‘his’ Malayalam kitty! He’s been pilfering them shamelessly most of the time, due to which many of the original producers are (obviously) disgruntled with the man. There have been a couple of court-cases filed too, to which out-of-court settlements had to be made.
‘Bhagam Bhaag’, the latest in his kitty, is a remake of ‘Mannar Mathaayi Speaking’, a sequel to the original of ‘Hera Pheri’. However, it was set much like ‘Hera Pheri’ itself, about small-timers who’s come into a bit of money. Which was precisely why it worked so well; it was everyman’s tale. If ‘Phir Hera Pheri’ hadn’t been made, you can bet your ass that Priyan’d have rushed to make it himself.
The only good thing, I guess, is that these remakes have spawned an interest into their originals in other parts of India. Please do see the originals, their remakes are not even a patch on them (except Hera Pheri, and to an extent Viraasat). Then you’ll know why he’s a much reviled man amongst us Mallus!
For those who like Priyans comedies…i suggest that they should watch Muskurahat. It was a good time pass with some hilarious moments between Amrish Puri and Jagdeep
you need a life tushar
After watching Bhagam Bhag I messaged all my friends, requesting them to watch the film. The message was : ‘ Please please watch Bhagam Bhag and encourage the mentally retarded kids who have made this film’. I was mentally paralysed after watching this one! ~X(~X(~X(~X(~X(
I somewhat agree with steve.. some movies are nice time-pass(hera pheri) but others are not even worth mentioning as they are so horrible…and thanks ranjit… I had no idea about all the remakes…I would love to see the originals…
lol @ chaitanya… I guess I’ll be avoiding this one!!
@DK: Muskurahat also featured Annu Kapoor in one of his best comic outings. In the Mallu original, it was this character (the guide) that caught the imagination of the audience..was played by an actor named Jagathy Sreekumar, who’s a splendid talent. Unfortunately, he’s done just Malayalam movies. Its a pity the hero (Jai ??) was SO bad…even a Sunil Shetty could have done better !! Believe Priyan wanted Aamir (pre DHKMN), but the producer did not oblige.
@Baarishh: Yeah, Priyan is to movies what Pritam is to music…essentially a re-arranger !!!
Just to add to Ranjit’s list:
Chup Chup Ke: Punjabi House
[apologies for being pedantic for the sake of detail: the source for Malamaal Weekly was Waking Ned Devine]
Good stuff, Tushar! WTF has happened to Priyan? Bhagambhag is yet another *kichdi* mix: Vertigo + Snegithiye + what else?
and i forgot to mention MUSKURAHAT, gem of a film!
and VIRASAT….best anil kapoor performance to date….
saat rang ke sapne was also diff n cool
@Ranjit : But atleast Pritam is a good re-arranger. Priyan is turning out to be a real bad one these days.
The main suspense track of BB is borrowed from a marathi film called ‘Bindhaast’ released a few years back.
pritam seems to be far better in his job ..as per priyan now days in selecting/recunstructing his movies…
VC : ..plz don compare the guy with directors like dharmesh darshan…dharmesh has been big crap… including his raja hindustani…
still priyan has got few good movies in his basket…
The mainn suspence theme was from Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo (1958)
Liked the movie.
when u go to see a comedy, u’ve gotta keep ur mind at home and expectations NULL & VOID, otherwise naturally u wont enjoy it.
some of my friends told that Govinda didnt have much of a role. I just laughed and replied “what whould have happened if he had a bigger role? All of you, the same persons would have said PLEASE-NO! not another govinda movie! Just enjoy what’s in there yaar! why to fuss about what’s not in there?”
well of course that’s my point of view
i loved hera pheri and enjoyed hungama.. particularly enjoyed the scene towards the end where everyone’s stuck to each other by an electric current.. it was the first of its kind so i guess i enjoyed it, but every movie of priyan’s since then i’ve ho-hum’ed thru.. malaamaal, garam masala (songs were awesome), hulchul.. all put me to sleep and got majorly repetitive, so i gave the rest of his movies a pass.. and i think somewhere along the way he just got addicted with giving paresh rawal a ridiculous look in all his movies.. what was with the buck teeth in malaamaal?? i’ll probably watch BB a dekho if it’s on tv, unless i get forced into putting it on my italkies q…