Bhola ( 2023/ Action Thriller/ Cinema Release)
Director – Ajay Devgn
Cast – Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Deepak Dobriyal, Sanjay Mishra, Gajraj Rao, Vineet Kumar
Bholaa could loosely be categorised as a chase movie.
There’s a huge cache of drugs worth “dus hazaar karor”. Obviously there’s chase around it.Some very interesting looking main baddies, one interesting looking super hero ,dozens of side-baddies with their own distinctive attack styles and one very important TRUCK is what constitutes the crux of the film.
The truck needs to reach somewhere and it takes more than 50 pct of the film’s footage to reach its destination and no, it doesn’t contain the much sought after drugs. Despite my lack of driving skills, I felt compelled to help it reach where it had to, just so that the story could move forward. But the writers strongly believed that “ The journey is more important than the destination”
Bholaa has a decent base story ( I haven’t watch the original) , a cast which I would call superb, lots of rustic style and action , decent VFX,a good adrenaline pumping background score and I would say, fairly good direction.
And yet it doesn’t ever reach its desired destination , though the consignment of the truck thankfully did. What it lacks is a good screenplay that is actually the backbone of any film.
It does remain largely engaging though, especially if you are an AD fan, or logic defying action lover or you can enjoy the main cast’s presence and performances . But it is lavishly interspersed with sequences that drag or are borderline irritating. So the adrenaline works in spurts and you remain invested because you are curious to see what’s next.
What also helped is the cast and the interestingly designed characters. Each character, had a distinct style and get up, which seemed fascinating and the lead characters have very dashing entry sequences.
Speaking of performances, the most impressive is Deepak Dobriyal in a menacing negative role. He is outstanding in a character that is way out of his comfort zone and diametrically opposed to the adorable characters he has always played.
Ajay Devgn is good in his trademark brooding style.
Sanjay Mishra , as always, is a pleasure to watch.
Vinnet Kumar looks menacing and scary in his minuscule role.
Gajraj Rao is good in a very different role.
Tabu, as always adds great value to the script even in ‘by now oft repeated cop role”. But I feel she was underutilised considering her potential.
We have seen Jay Devgn’s potential and work as a director. His hard work is evident in most of the departments even in this film. But I do wish they had worked better on the screen writing rather than just concentrating on the action and style. Also, tighter editing and slightly shorter run would have helped.
Every time I see an entertainer that has influence of south style loud treatment (not tweaked enough to suit our palate) , I get more and more hopeless .I add the tweak angle as we have had superb remakes like Singham.I had shared this after Shamshera and I reiterate this now. What works for south films might not necessarily work for us. Hindi films , in a bid to entertain like loud south films are losing their own unique style. “Na idhar ke na udhar ke” is how I would describe the situation at best.
Overall , the film is a good one time watch at best, for select audience as mentioned in the review.
Personally I enjoyed watching it but kept wishing it was better.
Score 2.5 on 5