An intelligent satire can work wonders when it comes to tickling your mental faculties. Satire uses four cardinal principles – exaggeration, reversal, parody and incongruity. It is a format that can be leveraged very well to ridicule or taint political establishments or symbols of authority. The perils of satire can be dangerous, especially when used to spread mean or hateful messaging. The recent attack on Charlie Hebdo and the ongoing incidents related to that serve as testament to this.
ASHOK’s FIVE reviews one of the best works of contemporary satire from the Bollywood stable #BahutHuaSamman streaming now on #DisneyPlusHotstar. Written by #AvinashSingh and #VijayNarayanVerma and directed by #AshishShukla, it is a potent combination of satire, comedy, nuanced acting and lampooning of contemporary figure-heads in society.
Bony (#RaghavJuyal) and Fundoo (#AbhishekChauhan) are engineering students of the Varanasi Institute up to no good. They are led on by the maverick Baba Bakchod (#SanjayMishra) to rob the MCBC (!!) bank. Along the way, they end up pursued by a Guruji, a political big-wig and an ace hitman Lovely Singh (#RamKapoor in an altogether different role).
#SanjayMishra is now a brand by himself and his deadpan rustic wit is brilliant. #RamKapoor delivers a philosophical sermon before he bumps off his victims. #RaghavJuyal has come a long way from his dancing and anchoring days and looks credible in the role of a bumbling student. The honours though go to the lady police office Bobby Tiwari, played by #NidhiTiwari who is totally at ease as the badass cop.
The scenes that draw reference from a likeness of Baba Ramdev are hilarious. The standards set in the first half fall short in the second as the writers struggle to close out the various threads of the plot.
The film is produced by #Yoodlee films and features the flop songs of the eighties as background score lending it a kitsch, retro feel. The comic book themed editing furthers the effect and gives it the curry western feel. The opening scene and the climax scene (set to the 1982 Nazia Hassan hit Boom Boom) stand out as fine examples of superb writing and comic sense. The cuss words come fast and strong but #BahutHuaSamman stands out for its stylish look and feel and will leave you chuckling at the sharp wit of its meticulously sketched out characters.
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