‘Bol Bachchan’ review: Impressive acting saves an otherwise foolish film!

Ananya Bhattacharya Amitabh Bachchan’s cameo in the title song sort of gives people a hint of what ambrosia is in store for them all through ‘Bol Bachchan’. And believe me; leave your sensibilities at home before going to watch this one. They will not be able to bear so much of torment. So after the opening song, the film takes about five minutes to make Abbas Ali (Abhishek Bachchan) and his sister Sania Ali (Asin) migrate from Delhi to Ranakpur in Rajasthan. Reason – the severely used and abused evil-brother-wrongly-usurping-all-property-of-the-good-brother theory, and Abbas and Sania find themselves, barely a blink-of-an-eye later, in an alien land. During the train journey from Delhi to Rajasthan, Shastri (Asrani) fills the brother and sister in about the methods of Ranakpur. Prithvi Raj Singh (Ajay Devgn) is the unofficial ruler of the village, and is at loggerheads with his cousin. The audience is treated to snippets of Prithvi’s detestation for lies and liars and his equal concern for the injured. The Pehelwan Prithvi is single-handedly responsible for the good of the village and its villagers and would lay down his life but not shift elsewhere – despite constantly being attacked by his goon of a cousin. After the initial exchange of greetings among Abbas, Sania and Shastri’s family, a child accidentally falls into a pond adjacent to a temple. The temple in question is one that lies on disputed ground. When Abbas breaks the lock of the temple door to try and save the child, the atmosphere is taut with apprehension. He is a Muslim who has dared to break the lock of a temple, and that too, one that had been abandoned – thanks to the two warring villages. Confronted by the exceedingly strong and whimsical Prithvi, a major lie is concocted. And there begins the madcap ride. Radhika (Prachi Desai), Prithvi’s sister is safely tucked away in her college in Delhi, and all hell breaks loose when she is abducted on her way from Delhi to Ranakpur. The script thereafter shows, in intricate detail, the love between the brother and the sister, and the reason the sister is not allowed to venture out of her home. The film has its moments, undoubtedly. What with the overdose of Ajay’s ‘English is a very funny language’, Abhishek Bachchan’s natural comical acting and Archana Puran Singh’s act of Zohra, the film makes you laugh out loud at many points. ‘Bol Bachchan’ revolves around Amol Palekar’s moustache-confusion in ‘Golmaal’, and is necessarily constructed on the same theme. The comedy of errors is retained from Hrishikesh Mukherjee’s film, and the plot of this one, too, is nothing different from the original. The point with movies like ‘Bol Bachchan’ is that there is nothing in it that is not predictable. It is not as if people can expect a shoddy piece of work and get inside theatres and be surprised to see the reverse. The music of Himesh Reshammiya, and added to that his nasal voice, are tortuous to the ears. The comic element is all that redeems the film, and of course, the acting of the cast. All of that culminates in a proper comedy, but the story line is non-existent. Leave the dry reason and logic at home, and there you have a brilliant movie. Infuse an iota of logic into it, and your brain screams out for a Saridon at intervals of five to ten minutes. The anthologised SMS jokes and the wafer-thin plot are some of the reasons the film doesn’t appear anything out of the box. They say what can’t be cured, must be endured. Once you give in to that adage and ask your white matter to exit the theatre, you will enjoy the film. Watch ‘Bol Bachchan’ just for laughing. Follow @nanya116