Besharam

To begin with, it is the most disappointing film of Ranbir Kapoor till date, pulling him down to that routine level of big stars who are very much afraid of trying something new and therefore keep playing safe serving the same old wine to their loyal viewers every year.

Actually films like BESHARAM become possible or get made only because of the confidence acquired by their makers due to the stupendous success achieved by their previous project. In this case, it's director Abhinav Kashyap and his famous venture DABANGG featuring Salman Khan. Now just try to figure out, that what kind of a lesson, the director would have learned from such a huge success of his first project. Obviously the lesson has to be that here in India; we don't need a story, screenplay or any novel idea to make a film on. But all we need is A Big Star to say yes and the rest gets arranged quite easily. That was the exact idea with which DABANGG was made and that is again the rule followed by Abhinav in his second venture called BESHARAM.

Hence please don't look for any solid story idea here or anything exceptional in execution as clearly declared by the title of the film being BESHARAM. The film damn cares about any story progression in its first half and is only interested in giving you some cool (irregular) entertaining sequences entirely written around Ranbir Kapoor alone. The so called plot is revealed just before the intermission and by the time its pretty clear that this is nothing but just another film made to en- cash the star value associated with an actor, by fooling the audience as usual. 3 songs each in both the halves ruin the pace further and the film drops badly post intermission only to recover in its last 30 minutes with a partially enjoyable climax. And that in fact is the only saving grace of the project, wherein both Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh jump in to rescue their Star child from a badly conceived film all together.

Putting it simply, this is the first time I found a bit of over- confidence as well as over-acting in Ranbir Kapoor's carefree portrayal of a spoilt brat. He looks like overdoing the act, far away of being natural in many of his scenes and that was indeed a very painful sight for me as a viewer, who rates Ranbir Kapoor as a blessed exceptional actor with a vision. Plus, the film's second half has many weird, illogical scenes which certainly make you wonder that who actually directed this. Like the silly chase sequence, where the goons are firing rocket launchers at people's homes in Chandigarh's local residential lanes & more. However, the moment Rishi-Neetu join in, they start providing those much required enjoyable (yet deliberate) moments in the end and try hard to save the film from sinking with their sincere efforts.

The inconsistent writing affecting the film from its first frame itself is accompanied by some feeble performances too led by the wrong casting of Pallavi Sharda in the female lead. The girl is no doubt confident and good looking too but honestly there is no chemistry to be found in the screen pair here. Moreover casting Pallavi in this role clearly proves the point that the makers strongly believe in the theory that when A Star is there in your film, then you don't even need a well known face to feature in it as his heroine. Javed Jaafri looks good as the tough villain and Amitosh Nagpal just fills in the space as Ranbir's friend. But sadly, I didn't get what I was expecting from the real-life couple Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh playing the corrupt police officers together. Their act is very fine at times but also looks forced in and too loud in some scenes mainly due to the unimpressive writing. Yet it was truly great to see Neetu Singh in such an unconventional role like never before and I can only wish the couple was given some better scenes together by the makers. No doubt this was a golden opportunity wasted here unarguably.

Apart from the unconvincing performances, BESHARAM also has a routine background score and a very mediocre kind of soundtrack, which one simply forgets while walking out of the theater. Now we all know that Ranbir is a brilliant dancer. But even a fabulous dancer needs good beats and catchy compositions to perform better which are not there in its seven tracks, composed by Lalit Pandit. Further, the cinematography fails to impress majorly since the art director makes a very fake looking Punjabi Mohalla set in the first half and the action director hasn't got anything new to offer in his fights.

Returning to the major spotlight of BESHARAM i.e. Ranbir Kapoor, it seems that the once visionary actor of WAKE UP SID, ROCKET SINGH, ROCKSTAR, BARFI & more, has lately made up his mind to make some quick loads of money instead of supporting good films and lost his creative vision in this wicked rat race. With a hope that he soon gets back on track with another gem of a film, I would like to conclude that there was only one dialogue in BESHARAM which could impress me, worthy of taking back home in those 2+ hours as a valuable life teaching lesson. And it was that, "Life gives you back in reverse, what you give to others. So if you do "Bhala" it returns back to you becoming "Laabh" (if studied in reverse in Hindi) and similarly if you do "Daya", it comes back to you as "Yaad", since the person always remembers you for the help given.

But other than this one precious line, I found nothing in BESHARAM quite shamefully.

Ranbir Kapoor seems to have comfortably established himself as the next biggest superstar after the sun sets down on the Khans who are nearing their fifties. A natural actor that he is, most of his movies have been well received; even in those that didn't make money, his acting was appreciated.

Well, here is his new offering 'Besharam' that has a lot of masala: there's comedy, romance and action and directed by Abhinav Kashyap of 'Dabangg' fame. Predictably, some references and parodies from his earlier film are seen here; the lead character being someone who does wrong stuff but has a heart of gold or naming one of the key supporting characters as 'Chulbul' after Salman's old character.

'Besharam' begins with an introduction to Bheem Singh Chandel (Javed Jaffrey) a hawala kingpin in Chandigarh who needs stolen luxury cars for his business. His need gets him introduced to Babli (Ranbir Kapoor), a mechanic who is also a car thief. And since the hero ought to be a good guy, he is seen donating all his earnings to an orphanage he grew up in.

Wait: Babli is referred to as a smooth criminal and the first car theft that we see of his involves a massive chase drama with cops! And that's supposed to be super smooth, huh! Nonetheless, the chase sequence is used to introduce us to the cop-couple, who are also Ranbir Kapoor's real life parents, Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Kapoor, who are childless and eventually think of adopting someone.

One day, Babli's eyes fall on Tara Sharma (Pallavi Sharda) who is a middle-class girl with big dreams of living a big life and marrying into money. On one occasion she also insults Babli who has been trying to woo her. But it so happens that the Merc she bought to show off to her friends gets stolen by Babli, who doesn't know it's hers and delivers it to Chandel. But then, there's a twist in the tale.

As such, the story has nothing new. Some of its situations are so flawed and are a throwback to the 80's. Silly chase sequences, preposterous plot situations that are simplistic extensions of some weirdly idealistic scenario. And then there's the forced love angle between a lead pair that has no chemistry whatsoever. Of course, there's toilet humor too. Still, some of its better jokes are quite funny.

The film's weakest link is its lead actress. Pallavi Sharda, an Indian- Australian and trained dancer does not have the looks or acting skills or even screen presence to play a lead role. Also, despite the high heels she is seen wearing, she is way too short to be paired with Kapoor. The only plausible reason being casting an unknown girl would've been to keep the focus solely on their superstar!

But despite the weak plot and songs lacking punch, the only saving grace for the film is its lead actor Ranbir Kapoor and his ability to carry off any film; although that didn't apply to his debut film. His antics convince you to believe in his character and feel for him and also laugh at his lines which he delivers with an accent that only makes him seem more authentic.

Nonetheless, no heroic charm can save 'Besharam' unless it makes its money using the hype that surrounded its release and the news that it is being released on 3600 of screens, tad more than 'Chennai Express'. But if audience reactions to simplistic comedies are the way to go by, there is no reason to believe why 'Besharam' won't do well. After all, it has a big star and it's a comedy!

Verdict: Well, there's nothing much to expect as a story and some of its funny scenes are actually similar to old movies. If you are in a mood for masala entertainment and random humor, 'Besharam' would suit your funny taste buds. If you are slightly more discerning, you won't really like it. But, if you are a huge Ranbir Kapoor fan, none of these reasons apply anyways.

I went to watch Besharam only for Ranbir Kapoor. He is one of the most talented young actors of Bollywood cinema with superb roles like Rocket Singh, Wake up Sid, Rockstar, Barfi to his name at such a young age... So this looked like he was going for another experimental role and given his track record, I expected he will pull it off.. but unfortunately; this is everything gone bad in one movie.. This is a mindless action-comedy with no script.. Jokes are old and unimaginative.. Ranbir tries hard to be the shameless yet good at heart mechanic - thief who is not shy about anything that he does or says.. Its the script and direction that lets him down. Pallavi is OK considering this is her first movie in a lead role. Rishi Kapoor and Neetu Singh are a total flop for the role in which there are supposed to provide comic support but end up irritating. A huge disappointment of a movie from Ranbir Kapoor. You may end up finding it average if you go with zero expectations. I give it 3 /10.

Besharam- the first time i ever walked out of a movie. It was so bad that even i didn't laugh at the 'jokes'. A song at a colorful Mela. Gosh, are we in the 80s?

Were Abhinav Kashyap and Rajeev Barnwal high when they made the film? Nevertheless, Ranbir Kapoor must be really besharam to have signed for such a film.

Actually, screw Ranbir. I feel really besharam to have wasted 95 minutes of my precious IB life watching such a movie.

P.s. A moment of silence for all those who already watched the movie or still plan to do so

movie doesn't deserve more than 2/10 , 1 for Ranbir Kapoor and other 1 for the producer who was confident about this movie, the movie starts as typical bollywood movie, with a song, the first half of the movie is watchable and the second half , i recommend you to get out the theater cause it's a complete disaster. reasons why you should watch this movie: 1. you have nothing else to do, even watching a insect is much entertaining than watching this movie. 2. if you hold grudge on someone take him/her and make him/her watch it. 3. watch if you want to have thrill in your life, i will pray that you survive this disaster. Finally Watch at your own risk.