BHOOMI

T-Series and Legend Studios’ Bhoomi (UA) is a rape-and-revenge story. Arun Sachdeva (Sanjay Dutt) is a widower who dotes on his daughter, Bhoomi (Aditi Rao Hydari). They live in Agra.

Bhoomi is due to get married to Neeraj (Sidhant). Vishal (Puru Chhibber), owner of a sweetmeat shop, loves Bhoomi and wants to marry her. However, when he expresses his love for her and proposes marriage to her just a day before the marriage, Bhoomi spurns his offer. This infuriates him.

Dhauli (Sharad Kelkar) instigates Vishal to rape Bhoomi to seek revenge. Vishal rapes Bhoomi, after which Dhauli and his associate, Ghulam (Veer Aryan), do the same. Completely violated, Bhoomi returns home but hides her trauma from her father whom she loves dearly. But she reveals all to Neeraj when his baaraat procession reaches her house the following day. Shocked, Neeraj’s parents force him to call off the marriage.

Shattered, Arun Sachdeva knocks the doors of the court but the lawyer (Vibha Chhibber) of the three rapists is hell-bent on proving in the court that Bhoomi is a girl of loose character. Realising that he would not get justice, Arun withdraws the court case. The father and daughter resign themselves to their fate but the people around them do not let them forget the horrific incident. As if that were not enough, there’s another revelation which shatters Arun and Bhoomi even more.

This is when Arun swears revenge. Together, he and Bhoomi decide to take law into their own hands. They eliminate the rapists one by one.

Sandeep Singh’s story of rape and revenge is routine and oft-repeated. There is not even a hint of novelty – neither in content nor in presentation. The screenplay, penned by Raaj Shaandilyaa, is clichéd and long-winding. Since there is rape, a courtroom drama, and ultimate revenge, the audience is bound to be reminded of two recent films – Pink and Mom. But because the courtroom drama is not half as good as in Pink and because the revenge is not half as exciting as in Mom, the routineness of the screenplay becomes even more magnified.

Another drawback of the screenplay is that rather than moving at a fast pace, it moves at a leisurely pace and takes too long to come to the crux. Consequently, the scenes appear long and boring. There are too many characters and making each character reach his logical destination takes so long that it tests the audience’s patience. The first half, at least, moves at a fair pace but the post-interval portion appears to be meandering here and there. Portions showing Arun Sachdeva’s helplessness and scenes in which he cries will not impress the audience because the actor (Sanjay Dutt), playing Arun Sachdeva, has a macho image. Even the revenge track is too long-drawn. Yes, there is a twist in the tale in the second half but that can’t pass off as novelty – it is just an additional twist. Since Bhoomi is raped, the viewers definitely sympathise with her but they don’t shed tears for her even when she and her father keep crying buckets. This is a major minus point of the screenplay.

The climax is boring and does not evoke the emotional high it was required to. Raaj Shaandilyaa’s dialogues are good at places.

Sanjay Dutt does well but showing him in tears and helpless is not the most intelligent thing to do. He looks rather bulky. Aditi Rao Hydari looks pretty and acts well. She does go overboard in a couple of scenes, though. Sharad Kelkar acts ably in the role of Dhauli. But he doesn’t evoke hatred. Puru Chhibber does a very fine job as Vishal. Veer Aryan makes his presence felt as Ghulam. Riddhi Sen shines in the role of Jeetu. Sidhant is effective as Neeraj. Shekhar Suman lends very good support in the role of Tajkumar. Vibha Chhibber is fairly nice as the lawyer of the three rapists. Sunny Leone adds oomph in a special appearance in an item dance. Sarita Sharma (as Alka), Poonam Mathur (as Malti), Anuja Chauhan (as Sara), Maggie Mathur (as Sulekha), Vandana Kakkar (as Neeraj’s mother), Shyam Gopal (as Neeraj’s father), Sakshi (as Diya), Dolly Kaushik (as Preeti), Vivek (as Dinesh), Govind Pandey (as Shaandilyaa), Kaleem Zia (as the judge), Paramjit Singh (as the police officer), Bhavya Gupta (as young Bhoomi), Adishree Sharma (as Ghazala) and the others provide fair support.

Omung Kumar’s direction is good at places only, but is found lacking at others. He seems to be more concerned with getting the location, ambience and setting right but he needs to realise that without good content, these don’t really matter. The location on which the climax scene is shot is an instance in point. It looks lovely but the climax sequence is so dull that the lovely location becomes an eyesore as the audiences realise that it is being used to camouflage the poor content. Sachin-Jigar’s music is alright. The ‘Will you marry me?’ song is quite good. Lyrics (Priya Saraiya, Anvita Dutt and Vayu) are okay. Picturisation of the aforementioned song (by Ganesh Acharya) is eye-filling. Choreo­graphy of the ‘Trippy trippy’ song is also fairly nice. Ismail Darbar’s background music ought to have been more impactful. Cinematography (by Artur Zurawski and Keiko Nakahara) is appealing. Javed-Aejaz’s action and stunts are raw and will be liked by the masses and front-benchers. Vanita Omung Kumar’s production designing and Ramchandra More’s art direction are of a good standard. Jayesh Shikarkhane’s editing leaves some­ thing to be desired.

On the whole, Bhoomi is too clichéd and boring to appeal to the audience. It will flop at the ticket windows.