Babumoshai Bandookbaaz

Great movie, this movie tells do whatever you want in your life but sooner or later your bad Karma will return and will end your life.

Two professional assassins are drinking on a bridge over railway tracks, sharing their life stories and reminiscing how they entered into the business of killing people. One of them considers the other his teacher. The junior has so much admiration for the senior that he has renamed himself Banke Bihari (Jatin Goswami) out of respect for his guru, Babu Bihari (Nawazuddin Siddiqui).

A weird self realization takes over Banke when he learns that Babu gets paid Rs 25,000 for each murder while he gets only Rs 8,000. That turns their conversation towards inflation and how it has become difficult for hired guns to operate with honesty. In an inebriated state, they challenge each other to murder three people. Whosoever will eliminate the three first will win and the other will have to leave the business of contract killing.

Babu (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is a professional hitman with an allegiance to a political party led by Sumitra Jiji (Divya Dutta), albeit both are wary of each other's clever ways. The relationship boils over an incident and Babu switches sides, and is soon contracted by a rival party to eliminate three important individuals, one among them being Triloki (Murli Sharma), Sumitra's right hand man. Whilst on this mission, Babu befriends Banke Bihari (Jatin Goswami), who incidentally has also been given the same contract and who considers Babu his idol. The two collaborate amid a competitive and challenging environment to finish the assignment, but Babu is stunned when Banke pulls the trigger to his head, telling him that he was actually the fourth target of the assignment.

Eight years pass by, Babu wakes up in a hospital having survived the backstabbing by his protege, seething in anger, seeking revenge. His rage is further fuelled when he discovers that his girlfriend, the feisty Fulva (Bidita Bag) was hunted down by Sumitra Jiji's goons after Babu was considered dead, and set on fire. Babu now has just one mission to live for - snuff out all his rivals, Sumitra Jiji and her henchmen, Banke Bihari and anyone else who stands in his way of bringing these people to justice. What Babu doesn't know is that there is an even more sinister plot playing out behind the curtains and he may not be ready to unearth the biggest betrayal yet.

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz is a raw, smartly crafted and pulsating crime thriller written by Ghalib Asadbhopali and directed by Kushan Nandy. The first half is fast paced, witty and filled with action. The second half turns into a revenge drama where the plot seems to be slipping out of control somewhat until it all comes together in the end. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is first rate as the unpolished bounty killer with a scheming mind, delivering a convincing performance yet again. Jatin Goswami matches him with all his might, first playing the protege and then his nemesis. Bidita Bag and Shraddha Das sparkle in their respective roles albeit short but meaningful ones. It's a less known, hidden gem of a movie that you mustn't miss, available on Zee5.

Wherever possible, the masterpiece direction and editing keeps clinging true to the film's theme of keeping it raw. It doesn't set huge expectations thus and gives you the full dose of it all: violence (without getting gory), love making scenes (without getting vulgar), and language (used to build in humour). All characters are kept as grey and down to earth to keep up the raw element. Well made!

Just because dark is trending, doesn't mean everyone has to make it. Dark cinema is an art and it's not just about violence, blood, gore, and sex. It might be a demand of the cinema but bigger demand is a better script. It is to be realized and that realization has to come from within. Kushan Nandy tries his hand on this part thriller-part revenge drama which he probably wanted to look like 'Gangs of Wasseypur', but couldn't make it happen.

Set in some fictional part of UP where politics is power and laws are to be played with, where living is hard but killing is easy, lies the central character of Babu Bihari – who is a contract killer. He is killing people and is happy until one day when he finds out Banke, a new age contract killer who is a fan and a self- proclaimed student of Babu. They share an unusual bond on the screen as friends, guru- chela, and competitors, which leads to various twists and turns in the story.

The problem with this movie is that it tries to do many things in little time, but at the same time, it forgets that a movie can be good with a simple storyline too. It tries to feed a forced realism to viewers and in the process introduces so many unnecessary twists that even Abbas-Mastan will question their existence.

The plot is so weak that actors leave their characters halfway through the movie. Just hurling abuses can never make a character powerful, you have to impart that fear too. Divya Dutta fails to do that in her negative role and so does Anil George. Lead characters are nothing extraordinary too; be it Bidita Bag or Jatin Goswami. Even Nawazuddin, he isn't bad though but he has set the bar so high for himself that it wasn't even half of his potential. His dialogue delivery is good but it does not at any point lift the mood of the film. He is an actor par excellence but he should know that Indian audience is ruthless, it's just a matter of one more movie and he can be stereotyped. The only actor who somehow leaves his impact is Bhagwan Tiwari as the cop. Although he has played a similar role in Masaan, but rising above a bad story is hard and he does that here.

The only good scene in the movie is when Babu and Banke discuss inflation and their fees of killing people, just like people with a perfectly normal job would do. Another good thing about the movie is its music.

I'm quite open to cinema which has violence and abuses but it should be tied tight with the thread of a powerful story. You cannot just throw around abuses and call it black humour. Just adopting the language and law(-lessness) of land doesn't make a movie authentic or realistic, it just makes it a rich man's Gunda and a poor man's GoW. I know I don't want to say this but if only the movie was half as good as its first poster design, it would have worked. Unfortunately, it was so dull that even Nawazuddin couldn't save it; for me at least.