बंटी और बबली

Let me preface my comments with this disclaimer, I am a nonIndian. Forgive my obvious ignorance and any misspellings, and proceed at your own risk.

I rented B&B from Netflix because I've seen KHAKEE with Bachchan. the father and Ash Rai, plus KUCH NAA KAHE WITH Bachchan, the son and, again, Ash Rai. The father is obviously an national Indian treasure as a wonderful, serious actor. The son is clearly a gifted comedian and maturing, sensitive actor. Ash Rai? She's one of a kind too, and she clearly knows how to pick 'em in her leading men. By the way, Ajay Devron, her leading man in Straight From the Heart, Raincoat, and as that nefarious terrorist in KHAKEE, is another example of her very good taste in who appears opposite her on screen.

B$B is delightful especially for Bachchan the son, who did great work here in various con man roles and in his interaction with his perky, little costar, Rani Munkerjee. Of course, the whole thing is a bit of fluff from beginning to end, and anyone who expects more, should leave as soon the first energetic musical number hits the screen.

The narration by Bachchan, the father and his eventual, inevitable appearance as the world-weary cop chasing these carefree, con kids is worth the wait. Of course, it is just like every other American cops 'n robber spoof that I've ever seen; nobody really gets hurt.

Now the surprise and joy for me was the so-called 'item number' in the bar with father, son, and their co-star from other recent movies, Ash Rai. The drunken banter (no, I don't speak Hindi and had to rely on the subtitles) and body language was very funny to me despite, or maybe because of, this obvious handicap. Their interactions with Ash prior to the dance number were perfectly timed comedy reactions too. The dance number itself ripped up the place and Ash looked as if she was having a lot of fun "flirting" with two of her favorite men. Now that's entertainment in my book, and in any language.

Go rent B&B, or, even better, buy the DVD and add it to your Bollywood collection. That's what I'm doing right after I finish this review. Thanks to both Bachchans, Ms. Munkerjee and Rai for sharing their talents with all of us.

Overall this movie is just about average . Some scenes are really humorous like Rani and Abhishek meeting at the rail station. Rani as usual sizzles and Abhi gives a fairly OK performance. Amitabh is not in his element except for the dance sequence "kajrare". Somewhat his performance can be termed as overacting. This man ( Amitabh ) is overworked and his age shows. He is burning at both ends. It is high time he slows down a bit.

And now the piece de resistance of the movie : That is the music. The music is very good and all the songs are quite hummable. The music is quite experimental and unique.

The story is plagiarized from a number of Hollywood movies, chief of which is "Catch me if you can". The plot is not detailed enough . For example the way the duo ( Rani and Abhi )dupe their victims , seems childish and there are many gaps in their schemes. But anyway the viewer can take all this in his stride, for after all this is a Bollywood movie and they are notoriously not meant to be perfect in their plots.

All in all a passable fare..

The movie starts out very well, with the two dreamy-eyed, small town youngsters yearning to get out and live up their dreams in the big bad city. After that, the pace slowed down quite a bit as Big B's character is introduced. Some of the scenes appear to be forced. The plot itself seems to be based on either Matchstick Men, or Catch Me If You Can. The concept of the 'con' has been borrowed and the usual Bollywood elements added to it. The bar scene before the Aishwarya number has been dragged quite a bit. What truly pulled this one off is superb acting by Jr. B, Rani Mukherjee and the supporting cast, which is quite minimal in its appearance. One wonders if the director had a choice, or if someone was hogging footage (get it?). Both the parents are missing for quite a bit while B&B are romping it up. The reaction in the small town to B&B's exploits also could have been worth exploring but isn't shown.

Overall its an entertaining movie, the musical score is good except for one song. One should not watch it as a realistic movie, rather as a fun caper that oozes lots of small town charm. There are definitely shades of films made in the 70s, 80s and one feels the influence clearly. Not surprisingly, this has been a hit grossing 4 times its budgeted cost.

Abhishek and Rani team up as partners in crime as they try to steal all of India's money in this hilarious movie! Starting out as two innocent souls fed up of the small-town life, the two run away in hopes of fulfilling their big dreams of fame and fortune. After running into too many road blocks, they try to go the easy way out by, well, stealing. They never run out of ideas to fool people. The best and most creative scene is the one with the Taj Mahal! Both Abhishek and Rani give a great performance. All the songs are great be it Chupke Se or Dhadak Dhadak. This movie features the king of item numbers with the Bachchans and the mesmerizing Aishwarya in Kajra Re. She finally does an entertaining role, be it just a song, after all her serious films like Raincoat and Chokher Bali. Coming from U.P. and being intimately familiar with some of the filming locations, I took full delight in watching this movie! Amitabh, of course, is excellent. His music video is fantastic. Just when you think you've laughed all you could, Amitabh makes sure his rapping skills leave your eyes watering!

Well, if someone has just to kill time and entertain himself with a juvenile crazy motion picture, then Bunty aur Bubli is the right choice.

After all, its not boring and not filled either with overly volatile sequences and neither with cheap, synthetic and temporal cinematic representation that have lately become the hallmark of most of Bollywood films.

Above all, the versatile Big B is there to come to the rescue of these scoundrels turned thugs who had mastered the skill to be-fool and trick even the state authorities. The swindling acts of the freedom loving couple played by Abhishek and Rani Mukherjee is laden with interesting script and imaginative screenplay. The Kajra Re song bearing the dance sequence with guest star - Aiswarya Rai, Amitabh and Abhishek added color to the robust story line. The moral lesson should not be lost as primarily; "the Law should be used to reform the criminals and not only to exercise futile punishment !"