Film: Bangistan
Language: Hindi
Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Pulkit Samrat, Chandan Roy Sanyal, Kumud Mishra and Arya Babbar
Director: Karan Anshuman
Rating: **
Bangistan is a satirical comedy that lampoons the religious fundamentalism prevalent in our society. It's a well -intentioned effort by debutant director Karan Anshuman that stumbles in its execution.
The story follows the lives of two wannabe terrorists Hafeez ( Riteish Deshmukh) and Praveen (Pulkit Samrat) residing in two parts of a fictitious country. They are hired by two rival religious groups to suicide bomb an International peace conference in Poland.
The duo is trained to switch their religious identities to stay under radar. But as they proceed to finish their job, they develop a special bonding and understand the true meaning of their respective religions through each other.
The film hits the right cord in the first half but it gradually turns into a snooze-fest after interval. The characters transition from terrorist to peace living idealist looks most unconvincing.
Bangistan, despite having a good script, fails at multiple levels, be it the lazy storytelling, lackadaisical acting or the poorly executed climax.
The film also makes some indirect references to real life events to describe the irony of our times. Barring a few noteworthy scenes, the film struggles to peddle the right kind of humour.
Ram Sampath's background score is one of the few high points in the movie. Two songs particularly are good “Maula” and “Meri Zidd”
Riteish Deshmukh was fine in both of his comic and serious manoeuvres.
Unlike his outing in “Fukrey” Pulkit's performance left a lot to be desired, he was over the top right from the beginning of the movie. Moreover his role as a fanatic ‘Bhaiya' was totally out of place.
At some places the script was lacking common sense. For example, the characters based out in Poland — the cab driver, the Bar Girl (Jacqueline ), the arms dealers were fluent in Hindi, despite their different nationalities.
There are also some not so subtle Hollywood references. i.e When Pulkit tries to redo the Robert De Niro's famous Taxi driver scene, it only fizzles out.
Karan Anshuman biggest failing lies in the climax when Bangistan deliberately turns preachy.
The movie in itself was a message, you don't have to give sermons to educate the audience.
