Babumoshai Bandookbaaz Explained

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz.
Director:Kushan Nandy
Producer:Kiran Shyam Shroff
Ashmith Kunder
Kushan Nandy[1]
Starring:Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Bidita Bag
Jatin Goswami
Shraddha Das
Divya Dutta
Thiago Juliaci
Music:Gaurav Dagaonkar
Abhilash Lakra
Joel Dubba
Debojyoti Mishra
Cinematography:Vishal Vittal
Editing:Ashmith Kunder
Kushan Nandy
Studio:Movies by the Mob
KNKSPL
Distributor:AA Films
Runtime:122 minutes
Country:India
Language:Hindi
Budget: 100 million[2] [3] [4]
Gross: 126 million[5] [6]

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film[7] directed by Kushan Nandy and produced by Kiran Shyam Shroff and Ashmith Kunder.[8] The film features Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Bidita Bag in the lead roles. The movie did average business at the box office.

Plot

The story is set in the heartland of Uttar Pradesh, whose political landscape is dominated by two politicians Dubey & Jiji. Babu Bihari is a hitman hired by both to get rid of their rivals. He kills for a paltry sum of 20,000, of which 5000 for the constable who gets him the hit job. Babu is ferocious & has a straightforward approach to hitting his target. He has a reputation for clean hits without any fuss.

Babu leads a very simple life, lives alone in a shanty in a remote location. One fine day Jiji offers him a hit job of a local muscleman. Babu goes to survey the routine of his target. There he comes across Phulwa, a cobbler. He is smitten by her beauty and impressed with her headstrong attitude. He tries to court her, but his advances are rejected. Meanwhile, he kills his target, which is witnessed by Phulwa.

In the police investigation, she refuses to identify him. Babu barges into her home, and she stabs him instinctively with a sharp tool. Babu somehow manages to control the damage and tells her that he came because he was curious about not divulging any information to the police. She tells him that the guy he just killed and his two brothers raped her repeatedly. She tells him if he kills the rest of the two brothers, she would spend her entire life with him. Babu promptly kills the two remaining brothers.

When he returns for his payment Jiji is furious with him. As he has ruined her plan. It was on the insistence of the younger brother, that she killed the elder brother to forge an alliance with the remaining two brothers for upcoming elections. This puts Babu in bad books with Jiji.

Here Babu & Fulwa have a great time and enjoy each other's company. On the other hand, Dubey feels that the three men of Jiji are an obstacle to his prospects of winning the election. He gives the contract to kill all to Babu. Babu goes to Jiji & informs her about the contract. He throws an open challenge to her to save her men if she can. He is about to hit his first kill when a bullet is already shot, missing its target. In the ensuing chaos, the victim escapes. It turns out that there is another hitman given the same contract. Babu saves the second hitman from the enraged mob. The second hitman is Banke, who considers Babu as his guru. Although furious at first that he ruined his kill, Babu makes amends with Banke. They decide to make this as a game. Of the three kills, whoever scores higher will win & the loser will have to leave the profession.

Babu scores the first kill. He is about to score the second hit, but a cop loyal to Jiji intervenes. In the ensuing scuffle, Babu is hit in the shoulder. He takes him in his police jeep and is just about to depart, when Banke sneaks in as a postman and scores the kill. The cop is furious takes him to a jungle to investigate. Babu is rescued by Banke and takes him to his home. Phulwa removes the bullet from his body & heals him back to health. She is impressed by his suave looks & muscular physique. A chemistry seems to boil between the two, which Babu also notices. Babu offers them to spend a night together. Shocked at first, Phulwa berates him & walks away. Banke reluctantly backtracks, saying that he was going along with their dance & booze filled merriment. On hearing this, Babu tells Banke that he was actually testing their integrity and if they had tried spending the night together, he would have killed them both.

After recovering from his injury Babu and Banke collaborate to kill Triloki, the last target and closest aide of Jiji. They create chaos in the rally and abduct him from there in the guise of constables. After killing him, they sit near a railway bridge to celebrate their victory. After moments of drunken banter, Banke reveals that the contract was for four people and shoots Babu point blank. Babu falls off the bridge into a cargo train.

Next, we see Babu waking up in a hospital with long hair & a beard, apparently from a long coma. He cleans up himself and returns. His cop friend reveals that after the death of Triloki, Jiji got her entire force to his location, set his house on fire, raped and burnt Phulwa as well. Babu is completely heartbroken and swears vengeance for the blood of all the traitors. He first locates Banke and just as he is about to kill him, Banke explains that he just executed his contract, and principally Babu should respect that. He spares his life because Banke had saved his life in the past. Banke tells him that Dubey revealed his address to Jiji. Thereafter, he goes on a killing spree and kills all his nemesis.

In the end, the secretary of Dubey (who now owns his empire) gives Babu one more contract. Babu refuses & says that he has left the business. He gives him an address and tells him that he has a strong motive to take this contract.

Babu goes to the address and instinctively avoids getting stabbed from a sharp tool, unmistakenly from Phulwa. He is surprised to see her alive, and she also has his son. Then comes Banke. It is then revealed that Banke and Phulwa fell in love the moment they met. Phulwa gave Banke the contract to kill Babu. Babu kills Banke by tricking him into a Russian roulette styled game. He kills Phulwa as well for her betrayal and burns both of them on a pyre, and keeps the child. In the end, we see babu raising the child after pledging away from crime. One day while going through the notebook of the child, he finds that the child has drawn a picture of a family in it (mom, dad and child). While looking at the picture, his eyes suddenly widen in surprise as he sees the same child approaching him with a gun held up. In the end, a shot is heard with the words "What goes around comes around".

Cast

Production

Casting and development

Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Babu plays the role of a sharp shooter for which he took special lessons in handling guns and action.[13] Prague based cinematographer Vishal Vittal was signed in for the film and added an international look to the rustic landscape of Uttar Pradesh while the crisp dialogues of Ghalib Asad Bhopali (son of famous lyricist Asad Bhopali) adds humour and spark to the desi flavour and dialect.[14] A special dialect coach was engaged at the shoot to capture the inherent flavour. Detailed research was done for costumes and sets to give an authentic look. All the songs were choreographed by Jeet Singh.

Filming

Principal photography of the film's first schedule began in, June 2016, in Uttar Pradesh. The first schedule was completed in July 2016. The film shooting was wrapped up in January 2017 and is due to release in 25 June 2017.[15] The film is made in only 5 crore Indian rupees including print and advertisement.[16]

Soundtrack

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
Type:soundtrack
Artist:Gaurav Dagaonkar, Debojyoti Mishra and Anup Bhat
Released:16 August 2017
Genre:Feature film soundtrack
Length:29:12
Language:Hindi
Label:Saregama

The soundtrack was released on 16 August 2017.

Release

The film was released in India on 25 August 2017 in 1,200 cinemas.

Critical response

, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz holds a 44% approval rating, on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on nine reviews with an average rating of 4.5 out of 10.[17] Rajeev Masand of News18 gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said that, "It's a guilty pleasure at best, provocative and titillating. But it's also overlong and derivative, and gives one of our finest actors little room to do much more than repeat himself."[18] Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said that, "Babumoshai Bandookbaaz appears superficial because it fails to explore characters and their idiosyncrasies. It's a film pretending to be a stylishly raw gangster saga originated in the interiors of the Hindi heartland, but in reality, it's nothing more than another attempt to look at the crime prone lower strata of society; through a rose tinted glass."[19] Meena Iyer of The Times of India gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 saying that, "The screenplay could have definitely been tighter. Yet Kushan Nandy gives you a film that you find yourself compulsively watching."[20] Namrata Joshi of The Hindu praised the performances of Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Jatin Gandhi and Bhagwan Tiwari and concluded her review saying that the film is, "Yet another revenge drama set in UP badlands that lacks cohesion despite some strong performances."[21] Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 and said that, "As capricious as its unfounded title, Kushan Nandy's rough-hewn hinterland noir Babumoshai Bandookbaaz is a roaring mess. It misfires on most counts."[22] Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 and said that the film has interesting characters. Still, the story has nothing new to offer.[23] Udita Jhunjhunwala of Live Mint criticized the film, saying that "Kushan Nandy's Babumoshai Bandookbaaz is a low-calorie version of Gangs of Wasseypur" in which "Nawazuddin Siddiqui reprises the sort of character audiences have already seen him perfect."[24]

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz . YouTube.
  2. Web site: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz – Movie – Box Office India . boxofficeindia.com.
  3. News: Nawazuddin Siddiqui: It is difficult for a low-budget film to be a hit, people don't discuss them . . 26 August 2017.
  4. News: Nawazuddin Siddiqui reveals budget of 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' – and Twitter can't handle it . . 26 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170827052728/http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/nawazuddin-siddiqui-reveals-budget-of-babumoshai-bandookbaaz-and-twitter-cant-handle-it/articleshow/60233266.cms. 27 August 2017. dead.
  5. Web site: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz box office collection day 5: Nawazuddin Siddiqui's film becomes his first solo HIT, earns Rs 10.12 crore . 30 August 2017 . BollywoodLife . 30 August 2017.
  6. Web site: Box Office: Worldwide Collections and Day wise breakup of Babumoshai Bandookbaaz . . 26 August 2017 . 26 August 2017.
  7. Web site: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz Poster: Nawazuddin Siddiqui Is The Desi Action Hero . 8 June 2017 . News18.
  8. Web site: Kushan Nandy's Chitrangda Singh starrer titled Babumoshai Bandookbaaz . https://web.archive.org/web/20141013010919/http://www.bollywoodhungama.com/news/2680061/Kushan-Nandys-Chitrangda-Singh-starrer-titled-Babumoshai-Bandookbaaz . dead . 13 October 2014 . . 10 October 2014 . 27 September 2015.
  9. Web site: Prosenjit, Roopa Ganguly to share screen with Nawaz, Chitrangda . Sen, Zinia . . 20 August 2014 . 27 September 2015.
  10. Web site: Bidita Bag replaces Chitrangda Singh in 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' . Jha . Subhash K . Daily News & Analysis . 30 June 2016 . 5 July 2016 .
  11. Web site: Piyush Upadhyay. 2020-10-05. IMDb.
  12. Web site: Camila Samara. 2024-05-26. IMDb.
  13. Web site: Tahir Raj Bhasin turns good guy with 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' . . 17 October 2014 . 27 September 2015.
  14. Web site: Nawazuddin Siddiqui's film moves out of Bengal after ruckus . Sen, Zinia . Chakraborty, Debajyoti . The Times of India . 25 December 2014 . 27 September 2015.
  15. Web site: Nawazuddin Siddique's 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' to release in June 2017 . 28 April 2017 . 30 July 2017 . https://web.archive.org/web/20170730153303/https://newsnexa.com/entertainment/nawazuddin-siddique-babumoshai-bandookbaaz-release-june-2017/ . dead .
  16. Web site: Nawazuddin Siddiqui reveals budget of 'Babumoshai Bandookbaaz' – and Twitter can't handle it . The Economic Times . 26 August 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170827052728/http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/nawazuddin-siddiqui-reveals-budget-of-babumoshai-bandookbaaz-and-twitter-cant-handle-it/articleshow/60233266.cms. 27 August 2017. dead.
  17. Web site: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz . . 6 June 2020.
  18. Web site: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz Review: A Guilty Pleasure at Best . November 2017 . News18.
  19. Web site: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz movie review: Bounty hunter Nawazuddin Siddiqui misses the target . Hindustan Times. 24 August 2017 .
  20. News: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz Movie Review . The Times of India.
  21. News: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz review: Not quite on target . The Hindu.
  22. Web site: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz Movie Review: Nawazuddin Siddiqui Isn't at His Best in This Film Riddled With Holes . NDTV.
  23. News: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz movie review: It's all there, but we've seen it all, or variations of it, before. . The Indian Express.
  24. News: Film Review: Babumoshai Bandookbaaz . Live Mint.