Bunty Aur Babli
is a film of missed chances. Look at what the
director Shaad Ali Sahgal had going for it –
A great cast, the best production house of the
country and an extremely strong technical crew.
Hence, the disappointment is all the more. It
is that nemesis of the Hindi film, yet again –
the script. For a caper film, the screenplay needs
to be crackerjack, witty, innovative, fast moving
and engrossing -- none of which Bunty Aur
Babli is. What is particularly disappointing
in the film are the conning sequences that are
just not clever or funny enough. (Hitchcock has
often said that show procedures in a film only
if it’s interesting enough, otherwise move
on with the story) The only con that works well
is perhaps the con involving the sale of the Taj
Mahal.
 The
film is a tale of two young middle class people
Rakesh aka Bunty and Vimmi aka Babli who run away
from home to get away from the suffocation of
their restrictive small town life. He is full
of get rich schemes and needs financiers while
she wants to be a model. As they keep running
into each other, they decide to come to Mumbai
to realize their dreams. Needing money to reach
Mumbai, they get together to pull their first
con. They reach Mumbai and decide to go back as
conning is what they enjoy best and go at it full
time. By now obsessed cop Dashrath Singh is hot
on their trail getting closer all the time…
Bunty Aur Babli needs to be watched
as an entertainer. Like most comedy caper films,
logistics and sensibilities are to be kept aside.
What has to work here are the scenes but the ones
that do work are few and sporadic. Overall, the
film seems curiously uninvolving and could have
done with a far more energetic flow and more ups
and downs. As it the character of the cop is introduced
only at the interval stage (to desperately sustain
interest for half two?) and hence the entire first
half just rides on Bunty and Babli meeting each
other and pulling off some cons. In that sense
the film totally lacks conflict in the first half
which really hasn’t got much going for it
especially as mentioned before neither are the
cons innovative nor is the other track –
the development of romance between the Abhiskek
and Rani handled well at all.
Where the film scores however is in its use of
real locations, its well-mounted Production Design
and colourful costumes. In that sense the film,
an ode to 1970s Hindi Cinema (Don’t miss
the Sholay tribute!), is extremely well
stylized.
Coming to the performances – Rani Mukherjee
it seems can do no wrong these days. What’s
more she just seems to be getting better and better
with each passing film and is without doubt the
best actress in mainstream Hindi Cinema today.
 She
is the life of Bunty Aur Babli, be it
the comic sequences (her wailing sequence as she
remembers her mother) or the few emotional moments
(confronting Abhishek after the birth of their
child). Amitabh
Bachchan’s strong screen presence and
character tailored to the gallery helps lift the
film several notches. If there is a disappointment
in the acting department, it is Abhishek’s
performance. Though he has his moments, he seems
to be lacking the inherent energy for the character
and in comparison to his co-stars appears flat
and listless at times. A pity because it looked
like Bachchan jr had finally broken through both
as an actor and a star with his searing performance
in Yuva and had enjoyed commercial success
as well with Dhoom. It took great bravado
to fashion a drunken scene around the two Bachchcans
but unfortunately for junior, senior wins it hands
down as he does the ‘item’ dance number
they both do with Aishwarya Rai.
Musically, Dhadhak Dhadak is the best-tuned
and best picturised song of the film and the music
by Shankar – Ehsaan – Loy is adequate
enough though nowhere near their best. The other
song that works best and has been used well in
the film is the theme song. On the camerawork,
while the film scores extremely well in its on-location
photography, cinematographer and two time National
Award Winner Abhik Mukhopadhyay appears uncomfortable
with the over dose of crane shots or senseless
random ‘chakachak’ movements Hindi
Cinema likes to employ thinking it is being technically
slick…
All in all, Bunty aur Babli is time-pass
at its best but otherwise nothing more…
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