Bad Company

Everything works out so well in the movies. It’s like an alternate universe where custom, convention and even common sense can be flouted with impunity because one knows that there will always be a happy ending (else ‘picture abhi baki mere dost’). Such is also the case with ‘Badmaash Company’ which I saw yesterday. Movies like this make one wish that the IPL-induced Bollywood drought at the plexes had not ended.

‘Badmaash Company’ is in the same vein as other recent Yashraj releases – pretty faces and half baked plots. Its like the Chopras now believe they have too much moolah to worry about script or detailing. And so, they hand over the baton to first time writer-director, Parmeet Sethi - better known to loyal DDLJ fans as Kuljeet and to all others as Archana Puran Singh’s partner. He has said in interviews that he wrote the script for the movie in six days. I really don’t know why he would want to expose before the audience just how little thought has gone into this film. Either he thought the movie was so good that he should be lauded for coming up with it in such a short time or he knows how flawed it is and seeks mercy. Either ways, foolhardy.

The movie which begins in 1994, is about Karan (Shahid) who along with friends Chandu (standup comedian Vir Das) and Zing (Indian Idol contestant Meiyang Chang), indulges in small time smuggling, serving as a ‘carrier’ to Bangkok for some extra dough. On the way they team up with Bulbul (Anushka) and Karan’s con schemes get more ambitious and more WTF inducing. These include importing shoes from Bangkok with the right shoe sent to one city in India and the left to another therein rendering the value zero. The shoes are not claimed for this supposed reason by Karan & co but purchased discreetly later at a Customs auction for throwaway prices. The gang reassemble the shoes at their end and voila! Full value Reeboks plus evasion of 120% customs duty (hence the need to set it in an earlier time frame where import duty was high). The gang now moves to try their luck in the US pulling similar stunts with surprising ease. With more money comes more pride, which as we all know, goes before a fall. Karan’s arrogance becomes his hubris and the team falls apart. Karan finally sees the light of day and decides to live by honest means.

The first half of the movie is much more watchable than the second. The first half sketches in Karan's frustration with his middle class life and his determination to get rich quick. The second half carries on with the boring variations of the con game with loopholes so big as to suggest the Americans and the audience are complete idiots. The movie drags on moving from one ludicrous scheme to another till one loses any interest to know what’s coming next. Characterisations are also flawed leaving the viewer wondering why Karan, a good student helped along by a rich uncle, at all needs to walk on the wrong side. An exploration of the characters rather than of their repetitive fraudulent activities might have been more interesting.

Shahid is competent but still unable to carry a movie on his own steam. There is only so far he’ll be able to go on the basis of just chocolatey looks especially if he always looks likes he’s trying too hard. Anushka sheds as much clothing as she can but still looks like she would be better off doing ads for fairness creams. Vir Das and Chang are both good considering its their first big movie.
The songs are catchy esp. “Chaska”, “Jingle Jingle” and the title track but too similar in mood and picturisation to really stand out.

For promising a fun-filled adventure and giving us a damp squib instead, ‘Badmaash Company’ gets a 5/10.