Another Nawazuddin Siddiqui film, presenting him in yet another similar kind of role of a coldblooded contract killer, BABUMOSHAI BANDOOKBAAZ tries too hard and is based upon a forcibly written character (without a soul), specifically designed to provide some cheap fun and thrills to a particular section of viewers.
Directed by Kushan Nandy, no doubt the film has its enjoyable and quirky moments coming at regular intervals, but it largely gets saved by the supporting performances to be honest along with Nawazuddin playing the lead getting into the skin of his character. In fact it’s really encouraging to see that recently there have been many Hindi films with outstanding supporting acts enhancing the overall impact, which probably might be the result of a Casting Director being given his deserving due and importance, since the last decade.
BABUMOSHAI BANDOOKBAAZ begins on an interesting note with a satisfactory first half but then derails as usual in its final hour. The dialogues have loads of cuss words (not beeped) along with the witty one liners and a few scenes do stand out like the introduction scene of Bidita (as a lady cobbler), the assassination sequence of Murli Sharma and more. But at the same time many major sequences never turn out to be realistic at all (including the intimate ones), with a lot of effort put in to intentionally shock the viewers. For instance, apart from many unconvincing illogical developments, even the title is a forced one using the word Babhumoshai as a gimmick describing a leading character who is actually famous as Babu Bihari.
Overcrowded with many unnecessary sub plots, it has a minimal background score and a few songs offering nothing above average, which has now become a norm in Hindi cinema. On the other hand, cinematography and art direction successfully create an authentic rural ambience and the dialogues do bring in the touch of an entertaining black comedy at times.
However, collectively the film rarely rises above an average fair and can easily be described as a desperate try to be the next GANGS OF WASSEYPUR heavily relying on the performance of its lead actor. As per my personal opinion, the writer Ghalib Asad Bhopali had a cracking plot of a competition between two contract killers racing to finish off their targets having a mutual bet. But Bhopali never focuses on this particular plot and chooses to re-use the routine vengeance twist post intermission, eventually ruining it all resulting in a mediocre venture.
Performance wise, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is good but not natural putting it honestly. He is terrific in some scenes and sounds terribly repetitive in the others reminding you of both GANGS OF WASSEYPUR (Part 2) and the recent RAMAN RAGHAV 2.0. Bidita Bag perfectly looks like her character Phulwa, but even she goes into the ‘effortful acting zone’, especially in the intimate and mad-dance sequence (involving the three). Jatin Goswami (as the rival killer), Murli Sharma (as a political goon) and Bhagwan Tiwari (as the Inspector) excel in their individual scenes but its Divya Dutta who rises above all in the role of a corrupt and opportunist politician. Rest of the cast tries its best but fails to stand out due to many animated kind of sequences unable to leave an impact.
In all, BABUMOSHAI BANDOOKBAZ could have been different but it never tries to present all familiar looking sequences in any distinctive manner. In short its another average adaptation of what you have already seen before and offers no novelty in either its storytelling or onscreen execution. Heavy influences of filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj and Quentin Tarantino from the west can be easily spotted. Still you can surely watch it once, if you love watching Nawazuddin displaying his typical mannerisms in the same old amusing style.
Having said that, here we have an exceptional actor, who certainly deserves much better from the writers and inventive directors of our Hindi cinema.
(The article also got featured in UC-News mobile app in August 2017)
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Shared below are views - Beyond the initial writeup with more interesting insights.
As mentioned in the review, Nawazuddin Siddiqui urgently needs to break out of his set routine pattern soon before falling into the same old image trap ruining his individual potential. At this moment it seems the makers are not willing to take the risk of presenting him in any fresh, different avatar and the viewers are not interested in watching him doing the same old clichéd things following the familiar, seen before pattern.
In short BABUMOSHAI BANDOOKBAAZ largely suffers due to this major factor alone and after watching it one can easily conclude that Chitrangada Singh made the right decision of moving out of the project for her own reasons.
Rating : 2.5 / 5
