Promoted as an exciting heist movie revolving around an armored truck carrying gold to be looted in the lonely desert, BAADSHAHO had a fine premise and successful names behind its making raising expectations. But sadly the film happens to be a shocking, poor mess that can easily be described as the most pathetic heist movie, completely missing the promised excitement, thrill and entertainment.
As a matter of fact, here we have a heist film that first keeps wasting time on uninteresting introductions, team-forming and planning. And then showcases the robbery happening so easily in just a few minutes without any problem at all making a fool of the audience. Probably director Milan Luthria and his dialogue writer assumed that only the witty one-liners given to Sanjay Mishra will be sufficient to do the trick and rest will be taken care of by the Star enigma.
May be the gimmick gets them the numbers in the first few days. But giving my personal opinion, this is the dullest heist film I have ever seen under the direction of an otherwise talented Milan Luthria. Giving you a fair idea, the film begins taking a potshot at Sanjay Gandhi talking about the dark, controversial era of Emergency and keeps wasting time on poor introductions in the first 30 minutes itself ruining the early excitement. Designing his entire promotional campaign around the heist only, the director takes an hour to reach the actual loot and then finishes it off in just 5-10 minutes in a hurried manner. Later many other absurdities simply put you off including an awful introduction of Vidyut sitting without his shirt in a train compartment just to showcase his body and six-packs.
With no such word in terms of language as BAADSHAHO used in its title referring to the team members, most of the lead actors sleepwalk through their roles including Ajay Devgun, Emraan Hashmi and Vidut Jamwal. The girls are simply there as decorative props dressed in contrasting chiffons and modern outfits bringing in the glamour element. Especially Esha Gupta is just there as the film demanded a second female too in an all-male star-cast. Sunny Leone as usual is there for an item number and the supporting actors contribute nothing significant in the film performing as per the jobs assigned. In all, its only Sanjay Mishra who actually gives you something in the name of entertainment before the insanely abrupt climax surprises almost everyone sitting in the theater expecting a twist in the end. Cannot say what exactly was the director’s novel, creative intention behind such absurd ending?
Having said that, despite not scoring much in its action and music (including a forced remake of Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan), BAADSHAHO does perform well in its technical department including Cinematography, Art direction, Costume designing and the most essential Background score. Particularly it’s the energetic background music that repeatedly infuses life back into an already dead progression saving it at various instances.
Overall, a film that was supposed to be an exciting heist movie, BAADSHAHO has only three positive features giving you a partial return of your money spent on the tickets and snacks. First is the smart, entertaining act of Sanjay Mishra, second is the well-composed background score enhancing the onscreen drama and the third is a rare sensual scene of Ileana kissing passionately like never before. So you can take a risk if these three seem to be worth your time and money as a personal choice.
Rating : 2 / 5 (Including an additional one for its technical department alone led by the background score)
(The article also got featured at UC-News mobile app in September 2017)
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Shared below are views - Beyond the initial writeup with more interesting insights.
Giving more details of this supposedly heist movie that never focuses on the heist, the following are the few reasons why it turns out to be a non-performer in this particular genre unexpectedly. (*Spoliers Ahead)
A. This is the second project post INDU SARKAR that takes a potshot on Sanjay Gandhi talking about the dark, controversial era of Emergency. And the film has a pretty strange, indicative portrayal done by Priyanshu Chatterjee.
B. Its really weird to see that the director designs his entire promotional campaign around the heist, takes an hour to reach the actual loot introducing various characters and then finishes it off in just a few minutes without any obstacles at all in a hurried manner.
C. The team captures the gold, they get it melted and then we again see it converted into different form loaded on the camels reaching a surprising destination. And this whole process gets done in a couple of days, while they are all on the run saving their own lives. Moreover why they get the huge quantity of (unrecognizable & not claimable) gold melted remains a question never answered.
D. A military officer (Vidyut Jamwal) is introduced in a scene where he is sitting all alone in a train compartment, naked without his shirt. Probably the worst ever scene conceived to showcase the six-packs.
E. Vidyut gets off the train on the station and Emraan Hashmi (who is one of person planning the loot) pickpockets Vidyut for no reason at all just to add a long no-purpose chase sequence.
F. A Maharani of the entire region (Ileana) gets romantic with her bodyguard (Ajay) and takes off all her clothes in the outdoors to be in his secured arms. And she does this as per the plan, just to make a fool of him!
G. After the initial heated exchange, both Emraan and Esha start talking about their future together in just a couple of days following the age-old set formula of our Hindi films.
H. Ajay Devgn is given a dialogue as, “Wo Army Thi To Hum Bhi To Haraami Thhey”. Now what the writer wished to convey here with his rhyming words is beyond my understanding to be honest!
I. The questionably remade song “Mere Rashqe Qamar” was obviously added much later in the film as it recently (again) became famous in a viral video. (The track was originally released in the early 90s by T-series itself in a Qawwali album sung by Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. The present version also uses his vocals playing in the backdrop.)
J. Lastly there is no word as BAADSHAHO as used in the title. Having its origin in Persian, the word doesn’t exist as a plural that can be used referring to all the Baadshah like characters in the team. In fact it’s mostly used as a slang fondly addressing an individual in Punjabi circles.
In all, as stated in the detailed review, BAADSHAO can frankly be seen (if necessary) only for three positive features namely Sanjay Mishra, its background score and the rare sensual kissing scene of Ileana.
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