Shalu

I was apprehensive about Badmaash Company as bollywood con-job movies are rarely convincing. So it was with a doubtful mind that I sat down to watch it. But five minutes into the movie, I was hooked.

Badmaash Company is about 4 younsters – Karan (Shahid), Bulbul (Anushka), Chandu (Vir Das) and Zing (Chang) living in Bombay (in 1994 it was Bombay!) who dream of becoming rich quickly. Their friendship with a small-time smuggler gives them a glimpse of the imported goods-custom duty racket that was a big business in the pre-liberalisation era. The ambitious and clever Karan hatches a scheme to make quick money and involves his three friends into it. The scheme works big time and this ‘Friends & Co’ starts earning loads of money by doing the wrong things the right way. The company goes from strength to strength and they take their business from India to America. But with easy money comes problems like inflated egos and ‘too much too soon’. Karan realizes that riding a tiger is thrilling but it is also impossible to get off……

BC starts with a glimpse into the 1994 Bombay and grips the viewer from the very beginning. The introduction of the 4 main characters is hilarious and the youthful bonding in infectious. BC moves at a fast pace in the first half – the romance between Bulbul and Karan, the first con job, and the tension between Karan and his father (Anupam Kher) – all are well depicted and the attention doesn’t wander even once. The second half also starts off well with a new con job but starts falling once ego issues crop up between the 4 friends. Thankfully, the movie picks up again towards the end when the four badmaash get together again for their final con job. And I walked out of the hall with a smile on my face.

In terms of acting, BC completely belongs to Shahid Kapoor. He has amazing range and I can’t think of any other actor of the new generation who could have portrayed the volatile Karan better. Anushka looks lovely and carries off the itsy-bitsy outfits gracefully but leaves a lot to be desired on the acting front. Chang and Vir are perfect in their roles, not once did I feel that this is their first movie. The supporting cast of Anupam Kher, Pavan Malhotra, Kiran Juneja is good.

First time director Parmeet Sethi deserves kudos for coming up with a polished work in his debut movie. I guess he has also written the script and dialogues (which are quite good). Pritam’s music is decent and goes with the mood of the movie. The choreography is really good and so is the cinematography. Editing could have been a bit tighter in the second half.

All in all, Badmaash Company is a fresh idea shown in an entertaining way. The movie falters somewhat in the second half but the overall experience was good. I want to give it 3.5 stars, but since the movie is genuinely ‘hatke’ I give it 4 stars

Worth A Watch

For those who are wondering what Sankat City is, it’s the name given by the protagonist of the movie to Mumbai. A Mumbai in all its filthy splendour. A Mumbai where survival is a daily struggle and using amoral means to survive is no big deal. Hey one gotta live!

Guru (Kay Kay) is a small time crook who steals cars, his partner Ganpat (Dilip Prabhavalkar) repaints them and they sell it to Sharafat (Srivallabh Vyas). Then there is the dangerous loan shark Faujdar (Anupam Kher) who strikes terror in the hearts of one and all. Mona (Rimi Sen) is a conwoman who thinks on her feet. An almost broke film producer (Manoj Pahwa) and a businessman (Yashpal Sharma) both owe money to Faujdar and are running out of time. There are many more characters like flop actor Sikandar Khan (Chunkey Pandey), the Sardar taxi driver looking for his long lost brother, a contract killer (Rahul Dev), Faujdar’s ‘fattu’ driver, and Faujdar’s religious guru (Virendra Saxena).

Life is going along nicely for Guru till one day when he steals a car which belongs to Faujdar. Guru and Ganpat get the most pleasant shock of their life when they find Rs. 1 crore in the trunk too. But Faujdar soon catches up with them and demands his money back. Unfortunately for Guru, Ganpat loses his memory after getting a bump on his head and thereby forgets where he hid the money. Faujdar gives Guru 3 days to recover his money or face death. From here starts Guru’s struggle to raise 1 crore in 3 days. I don’t want to reveal how the other characters are involved in all this as that will give away too much.

The movie starts slowly, infact the first half an hour is almost boring as the identity of all the characters is established. In addition to too many characters, there are also many sub-plots that take time to be woven in the main story. But once the story gets on track, it becomes a thrilling merry-go-round with unexpected twists and turns. A black comedy – intelligent yet crazy, simple yet whacky – Sankat City is many things rolled into one. There are spoofs on 70s/80s cinema like mele-mein-bichde-hue-bhai, on actor-producer equations, on God-mens. Watch out for the brilliant scene in the garbage dump which is a spoof on Mumbai itself.

On the downside there are times when the pace slackens. It mostly happens when the attention shifts from the main characters to the sub-plots. Though the sub-plots are well justified in the story, they do take away a lot of the fun element. When so many characters are filled into a movie whose duration is less than 2 hours and that too when the style is caper, its difficult to do justice to all of them.

First time director Pankaj Advani impresses with his fresh and original approach. The screenplay is good while editing is inspired in bits and pieces. That it’s a low-budget movie comes across in the average cinematography, sets, lighting etc. but that doesn’t really matter when you know that your intelligence is not being insulted. There are a couple of songs in the movie which are nothing to write home about but thankfully do not hinder the flow of the movie.

Kay Kay is as dependable as ever, he looks a bit uncomfortable with his comic timing at first but soon gets it right. Anupam Kher as a comic villain is a delight to watch as always, here he brings back the same twang he used in Hum. The supporting actors Dilip Prabhawalkar, Manoj Pahwa, Yashpal Sharma, Srivallabh Vyas, Hemant Pandey, Rahul Dev, Virendra Saxena are all perfect in their roles. The only bad performance of the movie comes from Chunkey Pandey – he has a double role and its difficult to say which of the two roles was more irritating. Last but not the least, Rimi Sen is the biggest surprise of the movie. She not just lights up the scenes with her screen presence but also outperforms Kay Kay at times! Somebody please give this girl a role worthy of her talent.

My Final Take – Sankat City is genuinely ‘different’ but not so different that it becomes art cinema. It is not able to match the same standards as Bheja Fry and Loins of Punjab but it does come very close. Watch it in the morning shows (read cheaper tickets) and you will walk out with a smile on your face. If you pay the regular multiplex fare for it (read expensive tickets) you may not feel so satisfied.

I sometimes wonder if we women don’t complain a bit too much. Not to take anything away from the superwomen who manage home and career fantastically. My point is that we seldom see men complaining about the problems in their lives!

A woman’s reasons for working may be many but a man has only one reason – he has to be the breadwinner of his family. When a woman gives up her career for her family, she is lauded for her sacrifice. Imagine a man doing the same – he will be called a loser! Of course most men are naturally ambitious but those who aren’t do not have the choice to give up their careers. On top of that they are expected to succeed at all times. A woman may get away with low ambitions (I know I do!) but a man has to go on rising in his profession. If he fails, he is not only looked down upon by the world but also his own family.

Speaking of family, I am sure that if asked to name the most important person in one’s life, 99% people will say ‘Mom’. So will I. Never mind if our mothers are the ones we take most for granted (but then maybe that’s the reason why everybody loves her the most!). But here I want to talk about the other very important person in our life – the father. Or should I say poor father. Because a father works hard all his life to provide a good upbringing to his children. He makes a lot of sacrifices. A father’s love for his kids is no lesser than a mother’s but his status always remains lower in the ‘affection’ department.

Men are supposed to be tough. And therefore they are, or should I say they have to be, the stricter parent. When a child is being difficult, the mom threatens that she will complain to daddy. And it works (of course there are exceptions to the rule). We look up to our fathers and maybe that is the reason we do not see them as clearly as our moms. We don’t give them the same affection as our moms. But do we hear fathers complaining? No sir!

Being a woman in today’s world is not easy. But hey, men don’t have it easy either!

I have encountered different types of bosses in my 10 year old career. Thought I would list down the ‘type’ of bosses who have been the most interesting.

1. The Yeller – I was unfortunate enough to get this boss at the very beginning of my career. I guess we all know how sensitive we are at our first jobs. We are not used to criticism and take every negative thing to heart. So just imagine my plight, here I was being yelled at every five minutes (mostly without any fault). I took it all for exactly 1 month and 7 days. Finally I lost my cool and threw the papers I was carrying on my boss’ face. Then I ran out of the cabin, picked up my purse and fled. Did not even go back for my 7 day’s salary. But no regrets, it was worth it!

2. The Lalaji – My second job had me reporting to a lalaji who had 14 cars and a house in the poshest colony of New Delhi. But he brought the newspapers he had read in the morning at home to keep at the office reception. He used to give me a missed call when he had to speak to me so that I could call him back from the landline (in those days outgoing for Rs. 8 and incoming was Rs. 1). And God forbid if he ever found a sheet of paper used only on one side thrown away!

3. The Henpecked – This one had a theatre actor-cum-director wife. She took her theatre group to different parts of the country and also abroad. And since theatre people are always short on money she used her husband’s office staff to do all her co-ordination part. At first I was only too happy to help (for someone like me even theatre was glamorous). But there came a point when I realized I was devoting 80% of my time to her work. To express her gratitude for my ‘help’ she used to give me free tickets to her shows. It did not take me long to realize that she was not doing me any favour as most of the time there was negligible audience and by filling the hall with her husband’s office staff she was saving her own face!

4. The Flamboyant – This guy is the loudest person I have ever met. Whenever he laughed, the whole office jumped. His normal voice was loud enough to be heard from the other side of a football field. The person he had to work closely with was a European who spoke in such a low voice that it was barely more than a whisper. It was always a hilarious sight to see them having a discussion.

5. The Jugadu – The typical jugadu Indian. He believed in saving money at all costs. He wanted 3 quotes for everything. He always knew somebody who could do the same work at a lesser price. 6 months after I left the company I found out that there was a fire in the office building – my jugadu boss had scrimped on servicing of some machinery in the basement.

Jokes apart I have learnt a lot from all my bosses and look up to most of them. But then does anything give as much satisfaction as making fun of your boss?