Bad Boy Review: Predictable!

BAD BOY

Producer: Sajid Qureshi

Director: Rajkumar Santoshi

Cast: Namashi Chakraborti, Amreen, Johny Lever, Sashwata Chatterjee, Rajesh Sharma and Deepak Zariwala

Platform of Release: Theatres

Rating:

By Jyothi Venkatesh

When you set out to watch the film Bad Boy, presuming it worthwhile especially since it has been helmed by Rajkumar Santoshi, who had earlier impressed the audiences with his films like Ghayal, Ghatak and Andaz Apna Apna, you are in store for a lot of disappointment when you realize that it is not only stereotyped and predictably stale but also unwatchable.

What’s the plot all about? It is about Raghu (Namoshi Chakraborty) the good-for-nothing son of a scrap dealer (Rajesh Sharma), who has failed in his exam and has no particular goal in life.The good for nothing fellow falls in love with Rituparna after seeing her picture in a newspaper and like Munnabhai, takes the help of his friends to get into the college, where she is studying, that too by impersonating as a student from Barcelona, of all places in the world.

The typical Rajkumar Santoshi comedy caper has all his staples. It has a happy-go-lucky and goofy lovelorn lad, and a rich highly educated and simple girl, who fall in love, but her stern father, (Sashwata Chatterjee), plays the killjoy. If the poor junk dealer’s son wants to marry her, he must have ‘high standard’.

The poor adult daughter has no say in the matter, when her father challenges Raghu to prove his worth by bearing the expenses of his household for one month, if he wants to win over his daughter’s hand in marriage, even though the girl goads the righteous lad to elope with her and get married.

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One fails to digest why Rituparna’s so-called uncle Johny Lever is dragged in from God -knows-which decade, overacting like crazy as the black sheep Uncle Poltu, with an atrocious Bengali accent, is brought in by the grumpy father to get rid of Raghu.

Unfortunately, director Rajkumar Santoshi fails to satisfy the viewer, thanks to Sanjeev’s screenplay losing pace intermittently and the narrative overall reminding you of far too many films that we have seen too far too often in Bollywood.

Debutants Namashi and Amrin have good chemistry and good screen presence. As first timers, the duo shows promise, especially Namashi who does well in emotional scenes. While Saswat Chakraborty as the stuck-up father is too one-dimensional and utterly predictable, Rajesh Sharma’s character has some depth. Deepak Zariwala, who is otherwise a first-rate actor is disappointing with his half-baked character of the surgeon who lacks meat.

On the whole, to sum up, I’d say that the predictable premise and treatment bring the film down though it is a romcom that may appeal to younger fans and those looking for light-hearted drama.