Director: Rajkumar Santoshi
Cast: Namashi Chakraborty, Amrin, Saswata Chatterjee, Rajesh Sharma, Darsheel Zariwala and others
Where: In theatres near you
Rating: 2 stars
When director Rajkumar Santoshi tried his hands with comedy way back in 1994 with Andaz Apna Apna, it took so many years for people to adapt his style of light-hearted comedies. Initially, a box office failure, the film went on to become a cult on satellite TV, but he returned to his signature filmmaking. With Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009), he reinvented himself with ex-flames Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif which worked in his favour.
The concept of a flamboyant poor guy falls for an upper-middle-class girl but to get her, he has to win the heart of the girl’s father is tried and tested formula for Santoshi, which he applies to his latest offering Bad Boy. Mithun Chakraborty’s cameo in a song Janabe Ali and Himesh Reshammiya’s emblem music are the highlights of the film.
Raghu (Namashi Chakraborty) impersonates a college student just to be around Ritu aka Rituparna (Amrin) in her college. Both meet and fall in love but Ritu’s father Shubhankar (Saswata Chatterjee) disapproves of their relationship. How Raghu transforms everything in his favour forms the rest of the film.
The good part of the film is that Rajkumar Santoshi doesn’t cheat anywhere in the film. He delivers funny dialogues, hummable music that will transport you to the 1990s, sincere characters, etc. At least, he didn’t overpromise in the aggressive promotions and called his film ‘extraordinary’ like other filmmakers and actors have done in the recent past or will keep doing in future.
He made a simple story with the most basic cinematography making it look believable in 2023. The film might be highly predictable, and may not even be a box-office success but, it’s still ahead of many comedies that were touted as out-of-the-box. Santoshi has cast two strong characters from Rajkumar Hirani’s Munnabhai M.B.B.S (2003) — Kenneth Desai and Kurush Deboo (famously known as Rustom Pawri). Poltu Da (Johnny Lever) is far much better here than all his contemporary works.
Santoshi also didn’t attempt a heroic entry of Mithun’s younger son Namashi. He looks fat on-screen and has messy curls in his hair with a slight lisp but he is still good for his first film. He can dance, emote and perform action. He is much better than his brother Mimoh. Amrin bears a stark resemblance to Kiara Advani but she needs a lot of polishing. Her dance moves are half cooked and dialogue delivery is cringe. She seems unprepared for the silver screen.
The rest of the star cast, including Darshan Zariwala, Saswata Chatterjee and Rajesh Sharma, are good in their parts. Santoshi’s world of Bad Boy isn’t unbearable and has its heart in the right place. One scene of Rajpal Yadav adds nothing to this plain film.
What works for the film is Santoshi’s honesty and old-school charm. Don’t expect a masterpiece out of Bad Boy, but it also won’t disappoint like Sajid Khan’s comic disasters or Salman Khan’s brain-damaging comic timing.
