Friday, April 13, 2012
Bittoo Boss
Through The Lens Comically
It starts interestingly enough. A wedding party wait listlessly, the groom shivers in his undershorts, waiting for the haldi ceremony. Someone grumbles that Barjatya has made it mandatory for a wedding to be filmed, and they will spring into action only when the videographer arrives.
Bittoo (Pulkit Samrat) arrives on a colourful motor bike and the festivities begin. Girls in low-cut blouses throw themselves at him, so that he makes them look good. Is this the Bollywoodisation of small town India, with the attendant problems, aspirations and heartbreaks? You never know because director Supavitra Babul doesn’t even go there. Bittoo Boss is a bit of Band Baaja Baraat, a bit of Kalyug, a bit of Love, Sex Aur Dhokha and amounts to nothing much.
Bittoo is the innocent amidst all that bling and sexual innuendo (the film’s tagline is one such), speaks in an exaggerated Punjabi accent; he thinks he captures “moshun” (emotion) which makes him an artist of the wedding video. Maybe he is, but nobody believes it is an art form, not his own editor who thinks he should use his talent with the camera for more lucrative work, nor the snooty TV channel executive, who doesn’t even want to touch his video leave aside watch it.
The biggest problem with the film is the complete lack of spark in the supposedly life-changing romance between Bittoo and a fickle rich girl Mrinalini (Amita Pathak, not meant for glamorous roles), who does the come-on-go-away number with the besotted Bittoo, takes him to a TV station get him a career boost, taunts him for his lack of wealth and sophistication, lands up for a romantic tryst with him and then agrees to marry the snooty TV guy.
Bittoo, in the meantime, gets into the get-rich-quick mode of making blue films of innocent honeymooners in Shimla with the help of a randy cabbie (Ashok Pathak), but ends up helping troubled couples instead.
The film has some spirited moments, with the earnest Pulkit Samrat (badly in need of a shave and haircut) pulls off, but the film is neither a love story, nor a comedy, not as bold as it wants to be and certainly not an incisive view of small town India and its growth pangs. An above average debut at best, and possibly a launch pad for Samrat.
Labels: Cinemaah
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