Baadshah Review

Rating: 3.00/5

Critic Rating: (3.00/5)

More than anybody in Bollywood it is Vaitla that really believes in the magic of DDLJ. For one, half his films are based on the idea of the protagonist scheming from within his lover’s house to cancel her prior wedding arrangement. This repetitive episode had been his fortress and everything piled around it is the endless sterile collection of the ‘dance and fight’ routine.

Plot

In this one Baadshah pretends to be a suicidal lover in the first half as he schemes his way into Janaki’s place (Kajal playing a self-proclaimed altruist) and in the DDLJ half he is pretending to be a wedding planner as he breaks Janaki’s wedding. Like I said, these parts are Vaitla’s strong holds. They are funny and to an extent, inventive. On the other side of it is how Baadshah wants to destroy the entire East Asian mafia because he once lost a brother in a terrorist attack.

Here the film moves away from what Vaitla and his writing team are aware of. Might not come across as absolute ignorance because they’ve been doing it for a while, but they still bugged me with their simple minded villains and the flash cut action sequences, most of which were two groups of people standing opposite each other and shooting. As if the many of these were not enough, NTR is constantly fighting to restore the faith in the invincibility of the hero. It is the lack of continuity and the ability to gather mindless villains that reassures the faith (so many villains).

Brahmi to the rescue

The Vaitla-Brahmi combo was the star again and NTR adds to it with his newly flourishing comic ability. The film seemed in total shambles trying hard to keep it funny and once Brahmi stepped in, everything else seemed happily forgettable and enjoyable.

Verdict

I wish somebody like Vaitla can stick to his zone. Why can’t he just make comedies that have nothing to do with silly dons with epic pasts? Why can’t he aspire to be funny and nothing else?

Reviewed by Rohit

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