From 'Badtameez' Dil to 'Besharam' Dil !. Review on Besharam

To be honest Besharam begins on an extremely wrong foot with no less than 3-4 songs within the first 30-35 minutes. One and a half hour into the movie and after '7 songs sick', the viewer almost feels like walking out. The whole thing just doesnt seem to be going anywhere. If anything keeps him bound to his seat, its the hope of getting something for his hard earned money and the fact that moving out of a packed hall can be a somewhat tedious affair. Directorsaab, my humble plea is - please give us some time to recover from a song before you start bombarding us with another. Besharam is actually an exercise is promoting new singers I'd say.

There are some 10-12 songs in all sorts of voices. Shayad kahin kuch 'click' kar jaaye. Sadly, none of the songs (including the title song) are anything to write home about. Lets just say, Besharam is a 140 minute movie with 70 minutes of song-selling. As always at the expense of the viewer ! If you are still interested in the movie read on.

Babli (Ranbeer) is an orphan who steals cars for a living in Delhi. Alongwith T2 (Amitosh Nagpal) he sells off the stolen cars and donates all proceeds to their orphanage. Chulbul Chautala (Rishi Kapoor) & Bulbul Chautala (Neetu Singh) play a childless couple serving as inspector and constable while Bhim Singh Chandel (Javed Jaffery) is a baddie into the business of 'Hawala' in Chandigarh. Bhim Singh hires Babli to steal cars for him and the car that gets stolen belongs to Tara (Pallavi Sharda), the girl Babli is desperately trying to woo. The rest of the 'story' should be easily imaginable even for a Bollywood newbie.

Clearly the movie seeks to further Ranbeer's reputation as that "lovingly brazen" teenage heartthrob who isnt ashamed of some of those trademark mannerisms exhibited of our "bold" youth including adjusting his undies and using socks to 'prop' up his crtch. But problem is there is very little else to support his claim. Make no mistake - *the uchalna-koodna, naachana-gaana and not to forget that badtameezi, is all there but none of it looks convincing. So its like every 10-15 minutes when the viewer is about to fall asleep courtesy the giddy lullabies, he gets a little dose of Ranbeer's "in your face" attitude; barely enough to keep him from dozing off. This goes on till the last 25-30 minutes to climax when the movie changes gear and kinda starts to "move it". Thats when the Chandelas and Chautalas come to the fore and help it salvage a 'rating'.

Funnily the movie is redeemed, if you can call it a 'redemption', by the character actors like Javed Jaffery and our ever adorable Chintuji and his wife (both on screen and off screen) Neetu Singh. Javed has really matured into a multi-dimensional artist with age and today he is one of those few artists who can be trusted to do just about everything. Towards the climax Bhim Singh starts showing us the 'Jat' side of his character and gives us something to laugh about. Chintuji doesnt disappoint as the chubby, aged and about-to-retire 'funny bone' and alongwith 'Bulbul' helps bring a certain 'familial' comfort and charm to proceedings. Pallavi doesnt exactly set the screen on fire but then I wasnt expecting her to. So it didnt matter. Amitosh who plays Ranbeer's friend makes an impression and we do hope to see him around longer, perhaps in bigger roles.

The moviemakers have again furthered a dangerous trend by hiring 3600 screens in one go and creating a "horizontal roadblock" of sorts similar to that done in advertising. This means many indifferent viewers would be 'coerced' to watch the movie for lack of alternatives. Needless to say other dubitable methods will also be employed to further their interests. But then this was inevitable. Just as the all that is good can be bettered, all that is bad can be worsed !

So to sign off - from Badtameez Dil to Besharam Dil - Ranbeer hasnt come a long way !

If anything he has taken reverse gear.