BAJATEY RAHO review

BAJATEY RAHO

Eros International and MSM Motion Pictures’ Bajatey Raho (UA) is a comedy thriller. Mummyji (Dolly Ahluwalia) has a very tough task on hand. To save the family honour and her property from being attached by the court, she has to amass Rs. 15 crore in a short period of time. Sabharwal (Ravi Kishan), for whom her husband, Baweja (Yogendra Tikku), worked, had conned poor people by offering them heavy interest on their savings if they deposited money in his bank. Since the signatory on the receipts was Mummyji’s husband, Sabharwal had very cleverly blamed him after himself siphoning off the money. Baweja had been arrested by the police for defrauding the public of Rs. 15 crore and had died of a shock. Mintoo’s (Vinay Pathak) wife, Saira (Vidhushi Mehra), had also been arrested and her release is now dependent on Mummyji returning the Rs. 15 crore to the hapless investors.

Mummyji, her son, Sukhi (Tusshar), Mintoo and their friend, Ballu (Ranvir Shorey), do everything under their command to collect the money but they succeed in collecting only Rs. 3 crore by carrying out a sting operation on Sethi (Ramakant Daayama), the principal of the school run by Sabharwal. Days are running out and they are still short by Rs. 12 crore.

They now solicit the support of Manpreet (Vishakha Singh) who enters Sabharwal’s house to teach him, his daughter, Gudiya (Anya Singh), and others dancing. Gudiya is to be married to television actor Aman Kapoor (Nikhil Pandey), and the dance lessons are for the pre-wedding celebrations. Manpreet wins Sabharwal’s confidence and manages to let Sukhi and Ballu enter the house as caterers for the marriage. Likewise, Mintoo enters Sabharwal’s home to conduct a jagraata as part of the wedding celebrations. The plan is to rob the Rs. 15 crore presumed to be kept in Sabharwal’s house as dowry money for his daughter’s marriage.

Do Mummyji, Sukhi, Ballu, Mintoo and Manpreet succeed in their mission? What are the difficulties they have to face? Is Sabharwal booked for the crime he had committed? Is his daughter’s marriage solemnised as planned?

Zafar A. Khan’s story is predictable and devoid of novelty. The screenplay, penned by him, with additional screenplay by Sanjeev Mehta, is also very routine and fails to offer both, thrill and comedy. Although a couple of twists and turns in the drama do come as a surprise, the major part of the drama progresses in an unexciting manner, which fails to involve the audience. A lot of the drama is also quite implausible and even this may have been acceptable had the pace been fast and the episodes, interesting and engrossing. But since that is not the case, the drama starts appearing too convenient to be believed. Resultantly, the viewer just doesn’t feel fulfilled after watching the film. Why, even the climax is very convenient! Frankly, the screenplay writers have penned it like the screenplay of a television serial. Akshay Verma’s dialogues are funny but only at a few places.

Dolly Ahluwalia does not have a very substantive role. Her performance is just about alright but she does impress in the last part of the film. Tusshar acts ably. However, his character disappears from the scene for quite some time in the second half. Vinay Pathak has almost been wasted. Ranvir Shorey is effective as Ballu but, again, he doesn’t have too many scenes to make his mark. Vishakha Singh acts effectively. Ravi Kishan leaves a mark with his fine acting. Brijendra Kala performs very naturally in the role of Bagga. Rajender Sethi is also lovely as Tej Kapoor. As TV actor Aman Kapoor, Nikhil Pandey makes his presence felt. Husaan Saad is cute in the role of Kabootar. Yogendra Tikku (as Baweja), Vidhushi Mehra (as Mintoo’s wife, Saira), Ramakant Daayama (as the school principal), Anya Singh (as Gudiya), Rajinder Nanu (as Raman), Vikas Mohla (as Pawan), Svitlana Manoylo (as Jeni), Kamlesh Gill (as Naniji) and Maryam Zakaria and Scarlett Wilson (both in special appearances) provide the necessary support. Others are okay.

Shashant A. Shah’s direction is alright but his narrative style does not involve the audience or prompt it to engage itself in the drama. Music (Jaidev Kumar, RDB, Honey Singh, Gajendra Verma and Vikram Singh) is average. The ‘Naagin’ song, composed by Jaidev Kumar, is the best of the lot. The title song, the parody song and the wedding song are fair. Lyrics (Kumaar, Aseem Ahmed Abbasi and Honey Singh) are okay. Arvind Thakur’s direction in the ‘Naagin’ song and Jasmine Oza’s, in the ‘Pyar di umar’ song are eye-pleasing. Daniel B. George’s background music is functional. Action scenes, choreographed by Parvez Khan, are quite nice. Arun Varma’s camerawork is fair. Sets (Ravikant Bhakre) are nothing to shout about. Aseem Sinha has used his scissors efficiently to edit the film judiciously.

On the whole, Bajatey Raho is a dull fare devoid of entertainment value. It neither entertains with its comedy nor thrills with its action and drama. Flop.