‘BAD BOY’ REVIEW
By
KOMAL NAHTA
Inbox Pictures Pvt. Ltd. and God Bless Entertainment’s Bad Boy (UA) is a love story.
Raghu (Namashi Chakraborty) and Ritu (Amrin Qureshi) fall in love with each other. However, Ritu’s dad (Saswata Chatterjee) has fixed her marriage with Tapon (Ambar Banerjee). The father completely disapproves of Raghu as he doesn’t even do anything for a living. When Ritu insists that she would marry only Raghu, the father throws a challenge to Raghu: that he should pay all the bills of Ritu’s family for one month; if he succeeds, the father would allow the two to marry, but if he is unable to do so, he would ask for the father’s forgiveness and get out of Ritu’s life. Even as Raghu is trying hard to live up to the challenge, the two love birds meet with an accident in which Ritu is seriously injured. Does Raghu have the money for Ritu’s treatment? Does he have to sacrifice his love? Or does Ritu’s father relent?
Rajkumar Santoshi’s story is as old as the hills and, therefore, looks completely and absolutely dated. Sanjeev’s screenplay is so dull that it tests the audience’s patience. It is also full of gaping holes. For example, Ritu’s father throws Raghu a challenge but he does nothing at all to address the problem of Ritu’s stand to marry only Raghu. Another major drawback is that there is no heroism of Raghu at all. He simply gets lucky when he is plying the owner of an advertising agency in his autorickshaw, but he does nothing heroic. Even if one were to counter this argument by saying that he does use his brains, the flip side is that his idea (which is approved by the agency’s client) is so kiddish that it fails to make him a hero. Again, in the hospital scene also, Raghu merely convinces the doctor to perform the surgery. But his logic in convincing the surgeon is so ridiculous and so far-fetched that the viewer hardly feels like applauding him for that. Although the film is a love story, romance is almost completely missing. Comedy is weak while emotions barely touch the heart. Perhaps, the weakest point of the drama is that the two young lovers never endear themselves to the audience. Sanjeev’s dialogues, with additional dialogues by Ranjit Kapoor, are good at places.
Newcomer Namashi Chakraborty and Amrin Amrin Qureshi are not hero-heroine material. They both lack the glamour one associates with a lead pair. Namashi Chakraborty’s performance is fair. Amrin Qureshi makes a very ordinary debut. Saswata Chatterjee is very earnest and tries to rise above the insipid script with a truly inspired performance. Rajesh Sharma is alright as Raghu’s father but he goes overboard at times. Johnny Lever (as Poltu) does evoke laughter at places with his brand of acting. Darshan Jariwala provides reasonable support as the surgeon. Ambar Banerjee is natural as Tapon. Nandini Chatterjee is average as Ritu’s mother. Madhu Anand Chandhok is so-so as Raghu’s mother. Rajpal Yadav is fair as the bus conductor.
Kurush Deboo is okay as the professor. Kenneth Desai is alright as the college principal. Amarjeet Shah, Rahul Kumar, Sagar Chavan, Shiv Aryan and Sandeep Bhojak lend routine support as Raghu’s friends. Ashwin Mushran (as Tej Gulati), Somya Singh (as Devika), Divyank Agarwal (as Om Gulati), Sudhir Dayma (as the owner of the advertising agency), Satya Vagle (as the agency owner), Neetu (as the doctor’s daughter), Kavya V., Rinku Rajput and Harshita Rathore (all three as Ritu’s friends), Shoma Mukherji (as Tapon’s mother), Pradeep Roycott (as Tapon’s father) and the rest provide routine support.
Rajkumar Santoshi’s direction is far better than his choice of subject. Himesh Reshammiya’s music is average. Lyrics are commonplace. Choreography (Niharika Khan) is dull. Raju Singh’s background music is fair. Tanveer Mir’s camerawork is ordinary. Action scenes (choreographed by Ravi Varma) are devoid of thrill. Ilayaraja’s production designing is dull. Steven Bernard’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Bad Boy is such a poor show that it will not even bring a hint of joy to anyone. Disaster.
Released on 28-4-’23 at Metro Inox (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over.
