Bank Chor Explained

Bank Chor
Director:Bumpy
Producer:Ashish Patil
Screenplay:Baljeet Singh Marwah
Bumpy
Omkar Sane
Ishita Moitra Udhwani
Story:Baljeet Singh Marwah
Bumpy
Starring:Riteish Deshmukh
Vivek Oberoi
Rhea Chakraborty
Baba Sehgal
Bhuvan Arora
Sahil Vaid
Vikram Thapa
Music:Shri Sriram
Kailash Kher
Baba Sehgal
Rochak Kohli
Shamir Tandon[1]
Cinematography:Adil Afsar
Editing:Saurabh Kulkarni
Studio:Y-Films
Distributor:Yash Raj Films
Country:India
Language:Hindi
Gross:10crore[2]

Bank Chor is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language black comedy film directed by Bumpy, written by Baljeet Singh Marwah and produced by Ashish Patil.[3] The film was produced by Y-Films and distributed by Yash Raj Films. The film stars Riteish Deshmukh and Rhea Chakraborty, with Vivek Oberoi in a substantial role.[4] Oberoi has returned to Yash Raj Films after 15 years, his last film under their banner was Saathiya. The film was released on 16 June 2017.[5]

Plot

The plot starts with a simple Marathi manoos and a Vaastu adherent, Champak Chandrakant Chiplunkar (Riteish Deshmukh), who is planning to rob a local bank in Mumbai. Two of his friends, Genda (Vikram Thapa) and Gulab (Bhuvan Arora), assist him in orchestrating the robbery. In preparation for the heist, Champak disguises himself as a sadhu and his accomplices wear elephant and horse masks. The bandits successfully make it past the bank's security carrying weapons, thereafter taking over the entire bank at gunpoint. But the heist soon unravels rather haphazardly, resulting in the robbers seizing twenty-eight individuals inside the bank hostage.

Among the hostages inside the bank, consisting of seventeen men and eleven women, are bank staff and customers, including a nervous housewife, a sassy female bank teller, a hyperactive male chef, the rapper Baba Sehgal and Jugnu (Sahil Vaid) who is purporting to be a Faizabadi undercover police officer on duty.

Powerless and defenseless, each hostage is soon tied up with his (or her) hands zip-tied behind his (or her) back. The robbers bundle the bound hostages into a back room and force the manager to open the vault. Champak continues composing stories to persuade the hostages about his white-collar class foundation to compensate for the fortune that has evaded him. In any case, things get off-track rapidly, making the bank robbers run into Amjad Khan (Vivek Oberoi) who is a heartless and tough CBI officer with a “shoot first ask questions later” attitude. The CBI officer threatens to use force against the bank robbers, giving them a one-hour deadline to surrender and not caring about the hostages’ lives if the deadline expires.

In the midst of everything occurring inside the bank, there is a much larger plot unfolding as the Indian Minister of Home Affairs takes an interest in the bank robbery; there is a disk inside the bank with compromising information that threatens to destroy his political career. There is also the expected mad-media circus outside the bank led by crime reporter Gayatri Ganguly aka Gaga (Rhea Chakraborty) whose idol in the movie is Arnab Goswami.

Eventually, Champak and his accomplices decided to end the bank robbery and free the bank staff and customers, removing the zip-ties fastening their hands behind their backs and letting them all go. But just as the hostages are about to exit the bank, one of them, Jugnu reveals himself to be a ruthless bank robber who is secretly working for the Indian Home Minister to procure the compromising disc that threatens to expose him in a political scandal. In a transition of power from the old bank robbers to the new bank robbers, Jugnu and his fellow perpetrators hijack the bank at gunpoint, shooting and seriously wounding an elderly male hostage and taking the original bank robbers, Champak and his accomplices, as their own hostages in a new bank robbery. As the sands of power inside the bank shift from Champak to Jugnu, Jugnu forces the old bank robbers to assist him and his team with their own bank heist.

In the meantime, the twenty-seven remaining bank staff and customers are forced to transition from being Champak's hostages to becoming Jugnu's hostages. The ruthless new bank robbers force the hostages to kneel on the ground; each bank employee and customer is now compelled to keep his (or her) hands behind his (or her) head at all times.

While all this chaos is unfolding, Amjad Khan discovers that Champak is no longer the real bank robber but his efforts to investigate the bank robbery are thwarted as the corrupt Minister for Home Affairs orders the investigation of the ongoing bank robbery transferred from the CBI to the local Mumbai police in an effort to help Jugnu.

At one point the CBI officer is invited to enter the bank to check that all the hostages are still alive and safe. The CBI officer enters the premises to discover the terrified bank staff and customers inside a back room, all compelled to sit on the floor with their hands behind their heads. During this time Jugnu instructs Champak to try and fool the CBI officer by pretending that he (i.e. Champak) is still the bank robber and that he (i.e. Jugnu) is still a hostage. At this point, Champak offers to let the CBI officer take the injured elderly male hostage for medical treatment. When the CBI officer leaves, Jugnu beats up Champak for letting one of the hostages go, much to the alarm and fright of the remaining hostages.

Eventually, Champak and his partners outwit Jugnu and his accomplices and help free all the captives inside the bank. In an act of chivalry, Champak and his team help free the female hostages first. But eventually, all the hostages are freed. The released bank workers and customers embrace Champak and his partners as their heroes for saving their lives. Jugnu is ultimately captured. The corrupt Minister for Home Affairs is exposed when the information on the disk inside the bank becomes public knowledge.

At the end, it is revealed that the three who freed the hostages were the actual bank robbers who robbed many banks and all the work done by them was a part to expose the home minister who killed his partner who was a journalist while he was gathering evidence against the home minister. They were also the actual persons who ran away with the money. Amjad Khan admits that they are the only robbers whose mind he could not read.

Cast

Critical reception

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 11%, based on nine reviews with an average rating of 3.5/10.[9]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on 24 May 2017 by YRF Music.

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Bank Chor. Yash Raj Films. 12 July 2018.
  2. Web site: Bank Chor - Movie - Worldwide Gross & Budget - Box Office India. Box Office India. 26 July 2018.
  3. Web site: Bank Chor (2017) Full Cast & Crew . www.imdb.com . IMDB . 17 August 2018.
  4. Web site: Riteish-Vivek's Bank Chor to have a low key release? . . 18 May 2017 . Rohit . Bhatnagar . 12 April 2017.
  5. Web site: Bank Chor trailer: Riteish Deshmukh-Vivek Oberoi starrer is a goofy chor-police caper . . Showsha . 18 May 2017 . FP Staff . 9 May 2017.
  6. Web site: Bank Chor trailer: Riteish Deshmukh plans to loot a bank, but will he succeed? . . 18 May 2017. HT Correspondent. 9 May 2017. HT Media.
  7. Web site: 'Bank Chor' has a hidden message: Bhuvan Arora . Business Standard. IANS. 9 May 2017. 18 May 2017.
  8. News: Baba Sehgal Has An Interesting Take On His Bank Chor Experience. News18 India. IANS. 30 May 2017. 30 May 2017. Network 18.
  9. Web site: Bank Chor (2017). Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. 12 July 2018.