For the longest time I have been
a huge supporter of Abhishek Bachchan's acting. While most people had given up
on him after his first few movies, I actually thought he could carry certain
roles really well, especially the ones in multi-starers. For the first time
ever did I find him lacking real acting talent as I watched him play the role
of Abbas Ali/Abhiskek Bachchan in Bol Bachchan. It might have been the film, or
that he was surrounded by actors like Archana Puran Singh and Krishna Abhishek
who pretty much duplicated their childish acts that can be seen on those comedy
stage shows that run all the time on TV, but Abhishek Bachchan could be seen
finding it hard to produce good comedy. What is truly ironical is that during
the end credits there is a brief moment when Abhishek talks to the director
Rohit Shetty and says "I told you I was made for this role"... I
strongly disagree.
Bol Bachchan is a rather poor copy of the classic Hrishikesh Mukherjee film Gol Maal. What Rohit Shetty has done is tried to add his trademark Golmaal-ism to the film in the hope that he would end up with a winner. Unfortunately, that is not the case. For those of you who are confused, as are most of the characters in the film Bol Bachchan, Rohit Shetty has the GolMaal series (nothing to do with the classic film except for the name) to his credit and it can be considered his claim to fame.
Now that I have the school-play acting rant out of my system we can move to the numerous unnecessary subplots and characters that bring absolutely nothing to the story of the film. The comedy is so crass that I often wonder who is it that the film is targeted to. Okay, I do admit there were a couple of instances, in a movie that ran for two hours, where I did laugh out loud, but then again I never said my comic sense is all that great.
The supporting cast does exactly that, try and support a film that is weak from the get go. Ajay Devgan might change his name to Ajay Devgn and also call his production house Devgn FFilms, but it's high time everyone realizes that it takes a lot more than playing with letters to actually succeed. His role is similar to what he has been doing lately, i.e. tough guy who can beat an army of men with one punch. Abhishek Bachchan, thanks to his gay act in Dostana, seems to have found a character that everyone making the film thought was worth repeating, but once again his comic timing is simply atrocious. Asin and Preeti Desai are there to be the damsels in distress and give the two heroes an excuse to showcase their emotional venerability.
As for the direction, it is very Rohit Shetty like. I actually have no problem with the kind of slow-motion fight sequences he usually directs and thankfully they are just about the right amount of fight sequences in the film. The songs seem to be popular right now on radio, but I do not think they are memorable.
Bol Bachchan was one of the biggest disappointments of 2012. It lacks originality or even class. What it worse is that with Bachchan being in the name of the film Abhishek should have stood out, but the film for me is his worst performance till date.
2/5 Rating.
