Monday, September 04, 2017
Baadshaho
Rogue's Gallery
The talk of Emergency tagged on to the promotion of Baadshaho makes it sound like it has a political statement built in, but it was probably because Milan Luthria wanted a period before cell phones and GPS. Also, if a heist is carried out against a ‘bad’ government, it makes the crime somewhat legit, and the heroes not unscrupulous thieves.
Since it is a throwback to the Seventies, it also has some of the elements of cinema of that era, like swaggering, quip-a-minute characters and an illogical masala plot. The Emergency is limited to a Sanjay Gandhi-like character who orders the army to confiscate the hidden treasure of Princess Gitanjali (Ileana D’Cruz), because she turned him down. She is thrown into jail, where she spends several days without crumpling her chiffon sari or mussing her make-up. The Seventies are invoked by characters wearing bell-bottoms and driving an Ambassador, otherwise the period is irrelevant.
Gitanjali’s loyal bodyguard and lover Bhawani (Ajay Devgan) promises to steal her gold for her, getting skirt-chaser Dalia (Emraan Hashmi), lock-picker Guruji (Sanjay Mishra) and Gitanjali’s friend Sanjana (Esha Gupta) to help. Trying to stop the on-the-road heist is army man Sehar (Vidyut Jammwal), who is introduced sitting in a train compartment in his briefs, for no reason but that he has a show-off body.
For a caper, it’s not much fun, the music is forgettable and the climax ridiculous. There are just a few enjoyable scenes—the actual capture of the truck carrying the booty being one of them; the rest is all tosh. Ajay Devgan plays his usual strong-silent type, Emraan Hashmi gets a sexy song with Sunny Leone, and Sanjay Mishra does the heavy lifting. Esha Gupta is included just to add a little more glamour. It would have been interesting to see them playing against type, but this is not that kind of film.
Labels: Cinemaah
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