Bachchhan Paandey Movie Review: Akshay Kumar & Kriti Sanon Lead A Caricatured Approach That Kills The Panache Required

March 18, 2022

353 5 minutes read

Bachchhan Paandey Movie Review Rating:

Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Kriti Sanon, Arshad Warsi, Jacqueline Fernandez, Sanjay Mishra, Pankaj Tripathi and ensemble.

Director: Farhad Samji

( Photo Credit – Still from Bachchhan Paandey)

What’s Good: If not Pankaj Tripathi, Arshad Warsi and the DOP, the film would have fallen flat.

What’s Bad: The visible urge of the makers to caricature every single thing on screen and then try to sell it as ‘masala entertainer’ gets so overdone that after a point it stops working.

Loo Break: Not like the trailer has hidden anything. You already know almost 80 percent of the movie. Take that break at your leisure.

Watch or Not?: I don’t see a reason one would choose a remake over Gangubai Kathiawadi on the big screen and Jalsa on Amazon Prime Video!

Language: Hindi

Available On: Theatres Near You!

Runtime: Around 146 Minutes.

User Rating:

An assistant director Myra (Kriti) dreams of making big in the film industry and tries to convince a producer to let her make a biopic. She chooses Bachchhan Paandey with all the extra ‘Hs’ and ‘As’ in his name. A dreaded gangster who kills people at the speed of light. Pulls out his stone eye and keeps it anywhere (wow, so unhygienic), and is unbeatable. Soon enough he develops a soft spot for Myra and gives up to her demands. A film is made a don is changed.

( Photo Credit – Still from Bachchhan Paandey)

Bachchhan Paandey Movie Review: Script Analysis

The basic job of a trailer is to create intrigue and pull people to the theatres. The ones who cut Bachchhan Paandey’s missed the basics and presented the whole movie in the trailer itself. On top of that, it’s a remake. What is left to witness in the theatres then? Akshay Kumar’s caricature gangster, Kriti Sanon trying hard to make sense of it all, and a poor Jacqueline Fernandez playing the most haphazard character.

Karthik Subbaraj who wrote and directed the original film Jigarthanda on which this Kumar Starrer is based on, has a sense of capturing the gangsters. The panache, even flipping hair has its own screentime in Subbaraj’s world and no one is allowed to interfere. The Hindi remake forgets the very style that the movie is known for. It is just a montage of interlinking plots and over stuffing the screen with surplus things. The makers so obsessed to caricaturise everything around the gangster that at one point it makes us judge whether the world is really supposed to be afraid of this man with comical side kicks?

Even the title Jigarthanda held a purpose in the movie. Cold heart it meant. But the Hindi makers just don’t want anything that is layered or has a metaphoric value. Spoon-feeding audience how this man has a heart of stone, they also give him an eye of stone.

Adapted in Hindi by Sajid Nadiadwala (who makes a funny cameo too) and screenplay enhanced by Sparsh Khetarpal and Farhad Samji is an addition to the list of weak remakes without the essence of the original sold as ‘masala entertainer’. It took three people to adapt this is in itself a surprising part.

We don’t get into the story because it’s already spoken about since 2014. Let’s talk about the bizarre filmmaking. Why does the opening credit look like end credits? Why do song sequences look like trailer? I am not kidding, the Maarkhayegaa sequence literally looks like someone has played the trailer in the theatre. For the most part of it, Bachchhan Paandey looks like different people set out to shoot a 10-minute chunk each day and then joined it all to make one. It lacks continuity till the very end.

Every single person has a story to tell, each character has an over the top approach. For that matter, Kriti Sanon’s Mayra is actually a male character in the original played by Siddharth. While it all went well on that trajectory, which of the writer in board thought it was a great idea to make Kriti fall in love with Bachchhan? Isn’t she a filmmaker who has spent her life in the city? Isn’t she smart enough to understand her subject is an assassin?

Bachchhan Paandey Movie Review: Star Performance

Akshay Kumar as Bachchhan Paandey is Akshay Kumar with prosthetics and a confusing dressing style. The actor’s real persona has become so synonymous with his characters, that it over powers them. The forced accent adds more to the dismay. It is the action where the star manages to draw some attention, but it’s just a small part of the movie.

Kriti Sanon tries to make sense of it all. Having done a good job at whatever she is given, her character after point becomes just a medium so Bachchhan can shine (which he doesn’t, so clearly mission failed). Jacqueline Fernandez comes and dies without creating any impact. I wish Farhad Samji someday realises the worth of a female character in a movie and doesn’t sketch them just to uplift his hero or heroes.

Arshad Warsi is a saving grace, can’t lie. The actor with his amazing comic timing and effortless acting manages blow some life. Pankaj Tripathi can turn anything into gold and is the funniest even when playing a caricature.

Also, why did they have to waste veteran actors like Mohan Agashe and Seema Biswas by giving them parts that are nothing more than props?

( Photo Credit – Still from Bachchhan Paandey)

Bachchhan Paandey Movie Review: Direction, Music

Farhad Samji doesn’t do much to bring anything more than anyone would expect. His direction focuses more on the comedy than on anything else and that becomes too repetitive after a point. So to so, that even the biggest heart change sequence feels like just another scene with actors trying to finish their job and go home.

Cinematographer Gavemic U. Ary manages to create good visuals. Paandey’s surrounding is captured in a pure western gangster vibe with a Desi touch. He captures the goriness and blood skilfully. The music does nothing more than make you count the number of remade songs the film has. A whistle theme that plays everytime the gangster passes by in his car is a bit of music that really makes any sense.

Bachchhan Paandey Movie Review: The Last Word

The definition of ‘masala films’ might just blur out due to the haphazard remakes that are served in disguise. Bachchhan Paandey could have been anything but it gets busy promoting its caricature.