Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Badmaash Company - movie review



FR: Too long! 

I don't know if this movie was poorly edited or I'm just used to short song-less English films. Either ways, like I told Manna, it was more of an educational film than an entertaining one, at least for me. I learnt that in 1994, Manmohan Singh reduced import duty on imported goods from 120% to 20%. And sundry such small interesting details. Moving on to the plot..

Karan (Shahid Kapoor), Bulbul (Anushka Sharma), Chang and Vir Das (Damn I don't remember their screen names :P) are thrilled to go to Bangkok for an all-expense paid trip. In return, they have to buy foreign goods for their mentor Archibhai. The movie is set in 1994 when the Indian Government was still levying heavy taxes on imported goods. Archibhai has moles in the customs department which allow him to bring in imported goods and evade import duty. Karan loves the luxurious life of easy money and soon hatches a scheme which will get the "Friends and Company" greater profits.

When the import duty is reduced from 120% to 20%, Karan and his friends find that they are unable to go on using evasion on import duty as a lucrative option. Soon, Karan uses his ingenuity to hatch another money-making scheme which just borders on being illegal. As happens with every hero doing anything slightly wrong, Karan too has to face the music for what he has done. Kya Karan apni bhool ko sudhar payega? Ya apne saare paise jue mein haar jayega? Interesting questions all. But it takes too long to answer them.

Vir Das turned out to be a nice little surprise package with his puppy dog looks and superb acting. Shahid was predictably decent and I felt his mean act was so good that this movie should have been called Kamine (Notice the missing y ;)). Anushka Sharma cuts ice with her tough girl act, but doesn't have much to do in the second half. Chang was disappointing. The only time he evokes any reaction is when he is the butt of a joke (Bewde Chini :D). One dose of acting classes here please. The cinematography is excellent and I would say Bangkok is looking more appealing than the US.

Although the movie seems a bit too long, I won't say that it ever gets dull. The camaraderie between the lead actors is good and their dialogues and costumes evoke laughter. The climax is super lame and the audience unanimously burst out into laughter when Karan announces his ultimately-for-the-ultimate-good-scheme. The feeling I got from this movie is, it has been made by an innocent child. Too many things have been assumed and that's what always makes me go "they had to prove that it is a BOLLYWOOD film". Nevertheless, definitely worth a watch once for A-Y-A-S-H-I on the Bangkok beaches ;)

Image source: http://www.songgy.net/

5 comments:

  1. errrr....a few things i couldn't stop myself from writing..

    1.import duty is supposed to be on imported goods only... :O

    roflmao :P


    2.movie names? really?
    last time i checked it was referred to as "screen names"

    3.this is a review, right? i thought i am reading wikipedia's page on the film....poora story out....wah wah! :P

    4. afaik, d "liberalisation" of indian markets, a.k.a. reduction (and in some cases, abolition) of import duties, was done in 1992...

    5.brilliant sentence construction...reminds me of shahid kapoor's tweets.... :D

    6. it was fun dissecting ur post....keep posting... :D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Dear anon,
    Next time please do refrain from commenting. Or at least be man enough to sign in with your real name or you might just find your comment ignored and/or deleted.
    1) Noted.
    2) Noted.
    3) Since this is my blog, I take the liberty of writing whatever I want. If you don't like it, you are free to read any other blog.
    4) thanks for the info.
    5) if you're following shahid kapoor on twitter, that says more about you than me :)
    Apart from that, he doesn't use any punctuation whereas I do.
    6) You seem to have a lot of time on your hands to actually dissect my posts. More power to you and I hope you find something more useful in your life to do apart from comparing my posts to shahid kapoor's tweets.

    p.s. brickbats are accepted only from non-anons. No such restrictions for bouquets though. You've been forewarned.

    ReplyDelete
  3. haha

    aap ne to dil pe le liya comments... :P

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Sahil: Jee nahi. Eent ka jawaab patthar se diya hai. There is a difference between constructive criticism and pulling someone down. The first comment fell into the second category. Hence, the response was appropriate for the comment.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Haha

    Well,i don't follow fahid kapoor's tweets..it was an example :P

    Ur blog will surely reach dizzying heights wit ''i write wat I want'' :P

    Yes,i DO have loadsa free time..why Wud I sit reading blogs otherwise..? :P

    Thanx for d ''more power to me''...electricity cuts in maharashtra r so frequent! :D

    More power to you,to keep writing such stuff that we jobless IT ppl can keep dissecting :D

    ReplyDelete