It is not a great film. In fact Akshay Kumar looks quite misfit when he tries to speak with a UP accent. The film is a remake of a Tamil film which was in turn ‘inspired’ by a South Korean film- so you can’t expect originality there.
Nevertheless, the film made me laugh and like some characters played by some very versatile actors of our industry. It was a film in which you start liking the characters, even if you don’t like the actors playing them. (Well, yes, honestly I am not a fan of Akshay Kumar). And I started watching it with a little bit of prejudice, I must say.
But then gradually, more that the protagonist, you start looking for more of the character actors, the silent mother, the loyal henchmen, the stammering ‘buffariya’, the slimy ‘Varjiniya’ or the ‘loverboy’ Pendulum and the master stroke is the acting teacher played by Pankaj Tripathy.
Arshad Warsi is such a versatile actor that he can make a place for himself even when he is given a minor character. He does the same here too. And above all that, there is that ‘feel good’ factor in the film, which despite violence and despite the hero being projected as the ‘negative one’, remains with you constantly.
Seema Biswas has hardly three-four dialogues, but registers her presence by constantly being in the backdrop. The story and the director make sure of it.
The film’s background music has a poor pick up from ‘Kill Bill’ and even the colours and shades of the film are inspired by Westerns, but still Bahchhan Paandey comes across as an entertaining one. One of the reasons why it ‘felt’ good was perhaps the unpredictability of the story. Simply because I hadn’t watched the Tamil or the South Korean film it is based on. In Hindi, the formulae are so very predictable that by the end of each film, boredom creeps in. Bachchhan Paandey thankfully keeps you ‘entertained’ right till the end.
Granted that it is a mediocre film, with bad music, but somehow, it is worth watching specifically because most of you preferred watching the hate spewing ‘The Kashmir Files’; Bachchhan Paandey is worth a watch because we have so much of negativity and hatred and mistrust, in short ‘chaos’ going around.
So, to go by the acting teacher, Guruji Bhavesh- one should spit out negativity and watch Bachchhan Paandey to go back to the simple and good-old teaching -that it is always better to be loved and respected than to be feared and hated.
2022-04-18
