"Maarne ka contract milta hai, nahin maarne ka nahin milta."
Babumoshai Bandookbaaz is a story based on contract killers and contract killings. It is about the bandook and bankdookbaazi. It is dark and grisly and overpowering. Yet, it failed to keep me hooked for long. Hardly an hour into the first half, I was ready to disconnect with what was happening on the screen in front of me.
All I can remember from the film are two things: infinite gunshots and Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The latter is ubiquitous in the film—present in almost every other scene. The film spins around his love, his friends, his rivals and his revenge. He looks convincing in the garb of the unassuming assassin from the hinterlands of Uttar Pradesh—short, dark and lean. Yet, Siddiqui's performance was more striking as Faisal Khan (in Gangs of Wasseypur) than as Babu Bihari—a cold-blooded and hot-headed contract killer, one who loves minus inhibitions but cannot pardon adultery.
Siddiqui and Bidita Bag in a still from the film
The film is about a game of one-upmanship between two paid assassins, Babu Bihari and his self-proclaimed protégé, Banke Bihari (Jatin Goswami). Both go about chasing and killing the same three people—Divya Dutta, Murli Sharma and Anil George—and the way they go about doing that is what the film is all about. However, this daredevil game fails to build up the tempo and seems too dragging after a point. The pace of the film, especially after the first half, is so slow and repetitive that one has to make an effort to sit through it.
Dialogues lack weight, and have been peppered with cuss words for emphasis. However, the tone and lingo are remarkably apt for the backdrop in which the film is set—lugaayi for wife, taad rahe ho for gaping—are used perfectly to portray the west UP tone and culture. Yet, Ghalib has also given us cringeworthy dialogues that pop up every now and then throughout the film. For instance, Phulwa (Bidita Bag as Nawazuddin's wife) who has been a gang-rape victim, urges Nawazuddin to kill two of the rapists by promising to spend the rest of her life as his rakhail (mistress). Also, at times the viewer is made to feel dumb; what with Babu Bihari emerging alive and kicking eight years after being shot straight in the head by his rival. This, when a single bullet is enough to kill everyone else.
The women, Bidita Bag, Shraddha das and Divya Dutta add intimacy and sensuality to the film. Explicit smooching and foreplay scenes scream for attention, and are portrayed well. Also, for a film set in rural north India, it is ambitious to show its women partaking in smoking and consuming alcohol. Dutta gets skin-deep into her character and looks every bit the role she plays— that of a sharp-tongued Jiji who abuses with abandon, aches for power by outsmarting political equations. Bidita Bag is convincing as the sexy and shrewd Fulwah, who knows how and when to grab her opportunities and shift allegiance as per her whims and fancies.
The film totally lacks humour. It wouldn't even pass off in the category of black comedy. Of course, I did almost laugh a few times: when Banke watches The Good, Bad and Ugly in Hindi and tries to imitate Clint Eastwood and when Babu Bihari and Banke Bihari have an argument as to who should be credited with finishing off a particular murder, and their hostage suggests the right word they are looking for—tie breaker.
As is evident from the last scene, the message the film leaves one with, is loud and clear: What goes around comes around. Yet, the film, which tries to look at the crime world in India's hinterlands and is spiced up with incidents of treachery, blood, and betrayal, is not worth much of your time.
Film: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Director: Kushan Nandy
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Bidita Bag, Jatin Goswami
Rating: 2.5/5
