Review: BABUMOSHAI BANDOOKBAAZ

Men Are Ugly. Women Are Quick To Undress.

1 star

Mini Review:

Babu Bihari, the best gun for hire meets Banke Bihari who says he became a gun for hire too because he was inspired by Babu. There are two politicians who use both these men to kill each other’s men. Babu and Banke begin to share a strange friendship, until Banke shoots Babu on a contract. But Babu doesn’t die and returns to avenge his death. The story sounds fine, but executed with so much sleaze, you just come away wondering why a fine actor like Nawazuddin Siddiqui needs to stoop so low.

Main Review:

Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays the gun for hire who has never missed a target. He is shown to be cocky and you see him stare lecherously at a woman cobbler’s cleavage, who has a mouth on her: ‘The fixing of your shoe costs five rupees’, she says, ‘but twenty rupees are for staring at my chest’. So promptly he comes back and gives her twenty, and says, ‘I’m going to stare at you again.’

So he’s cocky and lusty and the smart-mouthed sweaty village belle likes it. But the audience is still wondering why we watched a politician whose wife promptly removes all her clothes and gets massaged by a male masseuse while her husband watches.

Well, there are many such inexplicable scenes of sexual violence and lust which do nothing to add value to the story, and you wonder where the sweaty sleaze is going. To more sleaze, obviously. Babu and Banke watch Babu’s girl dance sexily on getting drunk. Banke tells Babu, your girl has so much salt, she might taste delicious. There’s also Banke’s girl whose raison d’etre is to be as lowbrow as she can be. Her clothes and her ‘item song’ dancing are so disgusting you put away your popcorn or you might puke a bit. You also wonder why Banke is shown in his underwear most of the time. It’s not like he is a Calvin Klein model. In fact, the kisses between Banke and Babu’s girl (yes, it happens!) are so terrible, you might wish you had taken a barf bag along.

The only silver lining to this dark disgusting pile of drivel is a cop who has fathered many sons, played by Bhagwan Tiwari. Brilliantly done!

Of course there are deaths because the two main characters are hitmen. But you don’t know, or care who died. And they all do. Oops! But you shouldn’t care about knowing what happens in the film. A bigger mystery is why an actor of Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s calibre should fall for the old ‘you will carry the film on your shoulders’ trap…

(this review appears on nowrunning dot com)