Bholaa #PicksAndPiques #FilmMovieDocumentaryReview #JohnsonThomas #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit

#PicksAndPiques #FilmMovieDocumentaryReview #JohnsonThomas #InternationalFilmFestivalCircuit #AjayDevgn #Tabu #AmalaPaul #VineetKumar #DeepakDobriyal #SanjayMishra #KiranKumar #GajrajRao #PanoramaStudios #ReliancePictures #AjayDevgnFFilms #UniversalCommunications Bollywood Film Review Johnson Thomas Gamey faux action spectacle Film: Bholaa Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Amala Paul, Vineet Kumar, Deepak Dobriyal, Sanjay Mishra, Kiran Kumar, Gajraj Rao Director: Ajay Devgn Rating: * * Runtime: 144 mins

‘Bholaa’ is basically Actor-Director Ajay Devgn’s attempt to go the John Wick way - i.e to build-up legendary offensive action by way of an indestructible hero who gains his never-say-die sustenance from the channeling of Bholenath/ Lord Shiva’s powers. We’ve seen Ajay attempt that in his not-so-successful second directorial effort ‘Shivaay’ earlier. In this film he goes one step further by showing himself arise from a near dead situation, manage to convert a stone Trishul into a sharp-edged steel killer machine and use that to vanquish 70 odd villains baying for his blood. We don’t see the stone to steel conversion but the minute he plucks it out from the statue its attached to, it’s a done deed. If that’s not enough we even see a leopard shy away from confronting him and a jail bird ( Makarand Deshpande) spreading lore within the jail precinct about his indomitable courage and valor. The narrative tries really hard to frame him as a legendary anti-hero who, following an attack by some Bionic villain ( we don’t see his face) with one steel-boned fleshless hand, is incarcerated for 10 long years. That part of the narration is deliberately left hazy and unexplained. In the meantime, through several inter-cut sequences we learn that his Doctor wife (Deepika Padukone clone Amala Paul)passes away leaving behind a 9 year old orphan daughter Jyothi, who is apprehensively awaiting the very first guest who is about to come visit her. But injured IPS officer Diana Joseph ( a measured and steely Tabu) requisitions him to help her out of a jam by driving the truck carrying a full load of poisoned, unconscious cops to the hospital. All this happens after Diana makes a humongous bust, an unimaginable haul of pure uncut cocaine/narcotics and perceives a retaliatory strike from the secret network of gangs that have lost out on such pricey illegitimate riches. The Lalgang, UP Police headquarters though does not have the manpower or the firepower required to withstand such an onslaught. The opening sequence detailing that very bust was pretty much inept given that there were 3-4 jeep loads of cops following the truck on empty roads and none of them thought it fruitful to shoot at the tires. Instead we see them shooting at the moving truck and end up losing a jeep full of cops in the bargain. As you must have guessed by now, the body count keeps on steadily increasing as the narration steps into the post interval half. The opponents get viler and more deadly too. But our legend continues to stand tall with opportune help from a hi-tech howitzer like multi-cylinder automatic machine gun firing off in a continuous blast. That’s the climactic fight that takes no prisoners and leaves no villains alive. The problem area for the film is its scripting. There’s really no development to be had here other than a facile gamey one where the villains attacking the anti-hero steadily increment in multiples as the narrative reaches its climax. Even the character build-up is slap-dash. Bholaa’s character arc is literally unbelievable. The action choreography goes into slo-mo magnified mode so that every fight sequence can be seen and felt (in Imax 3D no less). But that only ends up highlighting the inadequacies within. Then there’s the cantankerous,cacophonous and hyper-loud background score that aims to shatter eardrums rather than assist in lending nuance to the story-telling. The vedic chants meant to summon up mythic powers are used strategically throughout in typical Devgn style. Thankfully, the dialogues are minimal and not exactly bombastic. Ashwathama (Dobriyal) as the demented villain is snuffed out summarily - all that build-up of angst through angular dark camerawork, menacing sounding music assists and dialogue, came to naught all too easily. After that its just a numbers game where Bholaa picks up the confiscated weapon and lets loose his barrage of bullets. The screenplay by Aamil Keeyan Khan, Ankush Singh, Sandeep Kewlani and Shriidhar Dubey is intent on making Bholaa superhuman. Aseem Bajaj's cinematography and Dharmendra Yadav’s editing does the rest. The sentiment driven track of a father meeting his orphaned daughter who he has never laid eyes on, after 10 years may draw up some sympathy but it plays out in a very contrived and obvious fashion and therefore feels smarmy. Raii Laxmi’s item dance was imminently forgettable and so was the song that accompanied it. The rest of the film has a remixed version of ‘Aaj phir jeene ki tamanna hai’ playing at opportune moments - a fairly good ploy employed to invoke hope but it feels rather half-hearted. The narrative appears to be replete with dodgy CGI VFX work, so even the action ( though swift and bloody) seems unreal and unbelievable. Bholaa is an official remake of the 2019 Tamil hit #Kaithi which was written and directed by Lokesh Kanagaraj. In that film Kanagaraj used his lead Karthi and his punches sparingly and with greater force - because the narrative had long stretches of build-up and tension before piling on the dread with gratifying pay-offs viz big action set-pieces. That film was also a mad action no-brainer but one could feel the adrenaline rush and thrills from the manner in which it was structured. Devgn’s film suffers in comparison. As director he tries to helm the film with his own signature style -- inter-cutting the action set-pieces with sentiment and tragedy and eventually comes off the poorer. Much of the story is left unexplained. Bholaa deviates from the Kaithi script quite significantly. The male Indian Police Service officer is replaced with a tough woman in uniform with a tragic past - meant to invoke melodrama. While Kaithi’s hero played by Karthi was very much human and fallible, Bholaa instead requisitions super-human powers at will. Where do these powers come from and how did a two-bit ruffian come to it so opportunely?.. is left unanswered. The feeling of dread mainly comes from Dobriyal’s performance which doesn’t last very long as it gets snuffed out in service of the anti-hero’s next big challenge. It’s already been announced that Karthi and Lokesh Kanagaraj are set to reunite for ‘Kaithi 2’ and Devgn from the post credit sequence featuring Abhishek Bachchan, makes it obvious that he too is looking at making a sequel. Will it be a well-deserved one?.. is the question that can only be answered by the audience reaction to this film. From the initial Ram Navami holiday returns it doesn’t appear to be going that way though! Johnsont307@gmail.com