Badmaa$h Company

We went and watched the movie Badmash Company this weekend. It was an entertaining watch and by Hindi movie standards was an intelligently written and directed movie. I actually went with no expectations expecting the worst and came out pleasantly surprised at the quality of plot, storyline and directing while the acting was OK. I would give it 7 on 10 and considering the vacuum of good Bollywood movies out these days, would recommend it for a theater watch. The movie is about a bunch of recent graduates who want to make a lot of money and instead of slogging it out in the corporate world, want to start their own business and make it big. That is an awesome idea, only problem being their obsession with get rich quick schemes that while working a lot of times, get them into trouble too.

As the name and tag line suggests there are bunch of guys who do some wrong but smart things to make the money and fulfill their dreams. So this Badmash company start their business with a nice and interesting trick. Till that time everything is good, but from here on the there is a gradual fall. Director unsuccessfully tries to impress audience with some more unrealistic and boring tricks and only one nice trick was not good enough, for two and half hour.

Indian director always underestimate their audience, and here again the same story. Sahid background voice explaining the tricks becomes annoying after a certain time. The second half of the movie drags too much and you will not be able to connect emotionally with any of the character. Sahid has done a average job, while Anushka performance is a let down. One or two song of the movie is good but as whole the music score of the movie by Pritam do not offer anything special. Overall Badmash company is neither a bankrupt company nor a fortune 500 company.

Its' the Idea that change your life. Running on this punch line, this is a movie of 4 friends, who are deadly fascinated about luxurious and ravishing life style and wanted to make some quick bucks. Shahid Kapoor as Karan has his own ambitions, which got sparked after meeting Bulbul and some fast tragedies in life. The nice thing about the movie is it's its fast moving story with it wonderful music. With the beauty of the music, their life also moves on a Rapidly swift pace, from "Dust to Riches", all riding on Karan's Idea. How things change, friendship perishes, an ordinary guy turned to savage, enraged chap and finally life throws him some lessons. Movie has all the masala, one expect in a bollywood movie "Love, Romance, Music, Emotions, fight and above all heroism of Shahid with punch of heart touching friendship". Anushka is looking awesomely hot and gorgeous and turns on the heat in few scenes. Chandu and Zing played their roles at par expectations and made a kind of good debut. Shahid also played his flamboyant, infuriated, Godlike role as it was demanded in the movie. Good work by him. Overall its a movie with full bollywood tadka. Full points for good cinematography and location selection. That was commendable.

Some may come to the conclusion, from the trailer alone, that this looks like 21 with the characters having spend time in Las Vegas probably scheming against the casinos in their get rick quick ploys, but the truth is much further than that. Credit has to go to actor turned first-time writer-director Parmeet Sethi who adopts the same glitzy look and feel of the Hollywood production, but steering clear into his own story, allowing the characters to rest and relax instead at Sin City, and hatching plans that even Danny Ocean will be proud of.

The film opens in the mid 90s Bombay, and spends considerable time in the opening credits scenes with shots of the streets, setting the stage for Shahid Kapur's Karan, a bright young man whose plan is to make a lot of money, being quite averse to the life of an average salaryman like his father (Anupam Kher). Together with his friends Chandu (Vir Das) the womanizer and Zing (Chang Meiyang, from the 3rd season of Indian Idol) the drinker, they meet up with the attractive lass Bulbul Singh (Anushka Sharma) during one of their early forays into the smuggling business, and soon strike up a fast friendship, with Karan and Bulbul hitting it off extremely fast as a romantic couple.

Taking the advice of big plans churning out big money, they form Friends & Company as their front for their get rich quick schemes, exploiting business and loopholes in the law, as well as society's innate corruption in order to get ahead on India's position on the cusp of a consumerism explosion. Karan hatches plan after plan for Kiran's Quartet to execute, which allows for plenty of montage opportunities where the players don different disguises and personae in order to cheat their way through their pathway to riches. And like yuppies, they spend as hard and play as hard, since at that age the sky's the limit, and the feeling of invulnerability is seductive.

It's akin to Ocean's 11 with the mantra of greed being good, and the film examines how the excesses of money can influence and change relationships, and corrupt the inner soul of a man into thinking he's a god, especially when his ego gets super inflated, thinking that they are all nowhere without his ideas. Shahid Kapur shines in this transformation from rags to riches, and puts on quite the charismatic charm in order to pull off his schemes. In his Chance Pe Dance he plays a man looking for his big break, and here his Karan scores both the girl and the cash before ego gets in the way and begins that systematic destruction of what's dear to him.

But being a Bollywood film, there's plenty of room in its 144 minutes to set things up and down, and made right again. The supporting cast also made this film a delight to sit through, with Anushka Sharma in only her second film outing after the highly successful Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi, and what more for a Bollywood film to have featured her first on-screen kiss with Shahid as well, which of course is a big thing besides having to don her obligatory bikini to frolic in pristine beaches. Being quite the clothes horse here, her role is a departure from the more demure one in her film debut, being a lot more joyful and playful, and hardly sulking.

Credit too must go to the co-stars who make up the quartet, with Vir Das's Chandu given plenty of chances to get into disguises as he plays an integral field agent in their plan to pull the wool over their unsuspecting victims. But the one who will invariably get the attention is Chang Meiyang as Tanzing, or Zing. My only wish is that I can converse in Hindi as well as him, undoubtedly being the butt of most race related jibes (in good nature I must add), but holding his own just as well.

Shot in India, Thailand and the USA, Badmaash Company's strengths lie in the chemistry amongst the main leads, as well as the little moments of nostalgia and cheeky references put in to good effect. It's not the perfect film, but it has plenty on offer especially when learning how to make it good while doing all the bad things, which at times does call for a certain stretch of the imagination to work, sprinkled with doses of humour in between the more exciting scenes of witnessing Karan's bold plans unfurl. Recommended!

Not a fan of Bollywood movies I often have to be dragged to the viewing of a 3 hour song and dance fest which is usually a poor copy of a Hollywood flick. As a result, I expected very little from Badmash Company and what seemed like another predictable copy. Instead, Parmeet Sethi present an answer to Sodebergh's Ocean's 11. Sethi enlists the talents of a young and exciting cast that, uncharacteristically deliver in their performances. Sure, there is always room for improvement but as far as performances go, one must applaud their efforts especially that of Vir Das. Anupm Kher, in an almost cameo performance, gives the audience what they expect, a role that he makes his own and smacks out of the park.

Teen pin-up Shahid Kapur, in spite of his school boy features, comes through and gives a credible performance which is refreshing in an industry that is plagued with over acting. The uncharacteristically original plot starts to wear on and become clichéd three quarters in but manages to pull it back with an interesting twist at the end.

The attention to detail is impressive as a majority of facets are kept true to the time line in which the story takes place, such as video cassettes and not DVD's and the vintage stock exchange. Although this isn't consistent throughout the entire movie, it is a step in the right direction and once again, refreshing!

All in all, Badmash Company is a original plot, atypically directed and puts forth a cast that portray their characters convincing. Thanks to Sethi and the Cast, there is still hope for Bollywood!