Bhindi Baazaar

In the present times, amidst so many classic underworld films, if a director still chooses to make his project on the subject of Gangsters and Gang wars, then he has already taken his first step towards a disaster. Ranging from the cult SATYA to the latest ONCE UPON A TIME IN MUMBAI, the viewers have seen so much of this overused stuff that it is now extremely difficult to impress them once again with all similar kind of content. And that's exactly the main problem with BHINDI BAAZAAR INC. since the film has simply got nothing new for the viewers in its over lengthy duration.

Right from its first scene, its entirely predictable and hugely tiring to see all those repetitive scenes, seen numerous times before played by different actors in distinctive movies. In addition to this the film has a major problem in its performances particularly in the male department. Apart from the three veterans Kay Kay, Piyush Sharma and Pawan Malhotra almost all in the remaining cast have performed a little over the top as if they are really a part of something big being made by the director. In fact, from the start itself the director seems to be hugely in love with his project and in this over enthusiastic state he goes on to shoot many arrogant kind of sequences which completely fall flat. For example, at one side we are shown Pawan Malhotra as a BIG DON of the area and on the other hand we are introduced with his boys who are just small Pocket-maars operating in the BEST buses. Really a great thought put in by the director and his writers.

Putting it differently, in BBI we get to see all old and over-cooked stuff which neither looks very good nor tastes better than all those previous HITS offered to us in the same genre. The makers very shamelessly try to use almost everything to make it a worth watching movie like double meaning dialogues, use of eunuchs to generate some laughter, girls using their body to win over the Dons and much more but sadly nothing works at all in the movie. However the only novel thing in the film is that this time, the wife of the BIG DON also goes on to murder her cousin justifying her own status of the Don's wife.

In the performance department, Pawan, Kay Kay, Piyush and Deepti Naval, all are fine in their routine roles, written without any newly added perspective. Giving it a second thought I also feel as if all these veterans remain under-utilised in the film which is a indicative failure for its director and writers. Surprisingly there is Jackie Shroff too in a cameo and he looks great on the screen but is wasted. The debutant Gautham is OK but Prashant Narayana keeps hanging on the thin line between acting and over-acting. So he should urgently take an alarming note of that. The two girls Shilpa Shukla & Shweta Verma get nothing more to do other than abusing or showing off their bodies. Musically, the 2 short versions of its songs go un-noticed and the cinematography captures the outdoors-slums well but I felt the background score a bit loud and again over-done.

On a closing note, I strongly feel that BHINDI BAAZAAR INC. simply teaches all the young film-makers a valuable lesson that "Masterpieces cannot be made deliberately, but they get into existence just BY CHANCE with the un-intentional efforts of a talented team put together." So if any director starts directing his project with a vision of making it a Classic or A New Milestone then he has just taken his very first step as WRONG. Even Ram Gopal Verma didn't know what kind of epic he was making as SATYA and even Manoj Bajpai didn't have the faintest idea of how big he's gonna be as Bhiku Matrey in the History of Bollywood.

But that's what Film-making is. Here masterpieces get made while having fun on the shoots and flops are produced in the attempt of creating Classics. And that's my conclusion about BHINDI BAAZAAR INC.

Plot looks like very real and Kay Kay, Prashant and other actors did very good job. Must watch movie.

Ankush Bhatt's 'Bhindi Baazaar' has all the ingredients of an intriguing crime thriller. It's shot with style and there are plenty of twists. The story is interesting but at the same time the writing is flawed. The first hour is repetitive and tends to drag at points. Certain subplots are underdeveloped. The characters played by Pavan Malhotra, Kay Kay Menon and Deepti Naval were among the most interesting and yet they are underused in the story. Darzi's romantic track is portrayed like a typical Bollywood romance with too much plot convenience and a little out of place with the overall feel of the movie.

The style of camera-work and editing is a little too erratic and overdone in the beginning. The score should have been more subtle in these sequences. The rawness of the slum and its detail are well captured. The item number should have been left out.

Pavan Malhotra is brilliant and so is Kay Kay Menon but an actor of his calibre is wasted. Same goes for Jackie Shroff. His character seems to have been added merely for plot convenience. Prashant Narayanan does tend to go over the top at times but otherwise he's fairly good. Vedita Pratap Singh is adequate. Shilpa Shukla is not given much to do but she makes her presence felt. Deepti Naval is superb. Gautam Sharma is passable. Perhaps it's the presence of his more experienced costars that overshadow his performance.

The dark humour is effective. If the whole film was treated as a dark comedy, this may have been a better film overall. Yet, despite its flaws, it's still an enjoyable movie. The twists are manifold and most of them work except for the final one which, again, appears a little too convenient. Once one is gets passed the repetitiveness of the first half hour or so, there aren't many boring moments (with the exception of a few hiccups, such as the romance between Darzi and Simran).

Watched it for KK Menon, just to realise that he has a very small role. Overall, the way of telling the story is nice. The plot has some twists and unexpected moments too. But doesn't have that "dekh kar maza aa gaya" feeling.

Clichéd plot, 50% of actors are either inept or have overacted, the title merely suggests that the events take place in Bhendi Bazaar, their are aplenty loose ends as well. A veteran like Kay Kay Menon is underutilized, the only reliefs are Pavan Malhotra as 'Mamu' and Piyush Mishra as 'Pandey'.