Fashionable Bunty & Babli from debutante director. Review on Badmaash Company

A revered production house (Yashraj Films) dealing with pyaar mohabbat and reeti-rivaz till the 90's got dazzled by the glam factor in the new millennium and so do their characters, in their latest offering, Badmash Company.

Raj was an England bred brat who was willing to pursue the Hitler-like Baldev to win over his daughter Simran. But that was DDLJ... before the B&B, Dhoom and Jhoom days. There has been a Chak De, once in a while, to maintain sanity, but YRF has been primarily dealing with the gray and black shades since a decade. Now the chauvinist baddie from DDLJ (Parmeet Sethi) wears the director's cap for the stylish Badmash Company.

B&B and Fashion both had a small town girl dreaming to make it big in the glamor world. The common factor in both being the quintessential affectionate Indian mom, bound by her husband but whose heart bled for her child. Same here and guess what??? the same mom... Kiran Juneja. B&B also had a son not wanting to get into the shoes of his clerical papa, Raj Babbar, (also the dad in Fashion, lolzzz). So does our hero here, Karan who does not want to do his MBA as suggested by his dad, because he ultimately wants to do his own business. But to give the director his due, he has done a decent job, maintaining a tight script, good punches, and given the movie a stylish look.

Instead of opting for a "career" after graduation, his post-education starts with a "carrier" flight, with his friends where he meets Anushka, also going for the Bangkok trip thru the same agent. Adept at sniffing out quick but fool-proof and profitable business opportunities, he forms a company with his set of friends and due to their smooth operation, they hit the jackpot by doing the wrong things in the right way (I would prefer not to disclose more details, but they are shown quite well).

A previous generation had lived a life of scarcity and limitations, but their children who grew up in the 90's had all at their disposal... information, technology, opportunity and this gave their aspirations a rocket's pace. The previous generation which had been bred on the hare and tortoise fable believed that this was not the right approach and the younger one could not understand why they must keep their dreams limited when their is no limit to what they can acieve. And torn at both ends was the lady of the house, for whom her kids deserved to get all what she or her husband did not get when they were young. This probably was the "Ghar Ghar Ki Kahani" in the 90's and is well depicted in BC though Shahid's story.

And just as Priyanka does in Fashion, he hurts his friends who help him in his ascent, and then undergoes a moral downfall but resurrects himself in time and is helped in that by those very friends. That's how true friends are. The narration is fast paced in the first half and the contrast of using the same sharp gray cells for a good purpose, in the climax, is really well intended, though it drags the running length of the flick.

What separates BC from the other con movies mentioned above is the way the events of the movie and the actions of the protagonists (or rather antagonists) are mapped to the social, political and economic scenario of the relevant time (the craze for foreign goods in the 80's, the cut of import duties after the budget of 1991, the housing loan boom in the US after 2003, which ultimately led to the sub prime mortgage crisis and caused the fall of Lehmann Brothers in 2008 and sparked off the global recession).

Even the problems faced by Shahid after their cons started getting discovered made a reference to the difficulty in getting off a speeding tiger. That's exactly what Ramalinga Raju had said while speaking about the Satyam Account books fudging.The camaraderie between Shahid, Anushka, Vir and Meiyang is good. Vir and Chang have given endearing performances. As for Anoushka, doing a Taani in RNBDJ and the spicy, brash Bulbul in BC indicates that she is versatile. But Shahid towers above all with a restrained performance. The senior supporting cast Anupam Kher, Kiran Juneja and Pavan Malhotra as Shahid's US settled maternal uncle are perfect.

Some scenes are well executed. Specially Anushka's dig at Vir in their first flight, when he is oggling at her ("they don't speak"... hilarious!!!). Anupam Kher's advice to Shahid before he is leaving the house and the splitting scenes of Shahid between Vir and Chang. What is missing is a proper reunion with his father. Dialogues are good, but music is not in the same league as other Pritam's tracks, Ayashi is just eye candy Rahat FAK's Fakeera does tug a chord of the heart.

Overall, it is worth a watch or two. Go for it, it is better than the cheap Housefull and might be more racy than Kites.