What was that?!
Thank god I checked my brain at the entrance (a security measure I took up for watching all Priyadarshan movies nowadays). Priyadarshan and I share a love/hate relation. I love Virasat. What I thought of Kyon Ki you can read here. And I can, lets say, tolerate Hulchul and Garam Masala.
Last sunday marked the end of my waaaaay to long filmi dry spell. Yes. I know. Sorry. I wrote that I already would be back by last week. But that was before three of my staff opted out of the remodeling of our Film/Animation/Webdesign Student Lab and so I spent the last of my holiday vacation weeks removing drywall, building workstations and rewiring our network. And had another reason to fall flat on my bed each night without watching any movies. Not one film between Dec.18th and Jan.7th!
So by Sunday I was willing to take any chance to get back to meri nice shiny filmi ke duniya. And if it meant watching Bahgam Bhag. Good thing I did. What didn´t we laugh.
Indian theatre company led by Paresh Rawal gets an engagement in London.
Choti problem hai. The testosterone overdosed heroes (Akshay "I´m in dire need of a shave" Kumar and Govinda) of said company scared away the heroine. Not a big problem it seems though. London, as we all know, hosts a fairly big desi community and somewhere there eki nai khoobsurat ladki should easily be found. You´d think.
First obstacle. The heroes, who of course fight each other for everything from girls to roles, get in each others way constantly. Second, the word heroine resembles the word heroin. Enter Sharat Saxena and Manoj Joshi. And London Policewala Jackie "Woohoo" Shroff.
Third, in their pursuit of their still nonexistent heroine they find the wrath of Shakti Kapoor and Razzak Khan and their very strange gang of thugs. One positive aspect though, while angering these guys Akshay also encounters a very beautiful, if fairly suicidal, Lara Dutta.
Who of course is A) perfect heroine material and B) not who she pretends to be. Btw. somewhere on the line we also have Arbaaz Khan coming in as the husband of Lara and then we can finally start with the story. And our guys can start to bhag.
The storyline starting with the intermission actually could work as a nice episode of "Murder, She Wrote". Only a slightly bit more chaotic. And hysterical. And loud. And ultra. And weird. And so very much away from a realistic story. Whatever.
Everybody and their grandmother turned up in this film. Whenever you thought, ok, now we have 3 storylines and 7 main characters another one (of either) turned up. Bahut masti.
My biggest regret is that Govinda had so little to do. And dance. I hope he´ll get more significant screentime in Salaam-E-Ishq. Bhagam Bhag is clearly an Akshay Kumar solo vehicle.
Which in itself is not a very bad thing, especially since he´s good here. But as one can see in the absolutely hilarious climax there are so many deserving characters and storylines in this film, there just was no prominent screentime left for anybody else but him.
So you´re looking for a well thought out and stringent executed storyline? Don´t. Watch. However if you you´re game for a totally crazy comedy with over-the-top overacting and stupid jokes, check your brain at the entrance and enjoy the ride.
Even lame jokes work if they come in rapid fire succession. Especially if they are shouted at you by a hysterical Akshay Kumar. Kasam se.
PS: See, that movie has so many people in it I forgot one I really liked. Rajpal Yadav. Very cool taxiwala. Whose life would be so much easier if he was a few inches taller.
PPS: All pictures courtesy of the films official website.
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