The first thought I had after watching around an hour of Bhaiyya Ji is – ye kaunsa Delhi ya Bihar hai jaha log nahi hai, aur traffic nahi hai? Well, that’s one of the distractions you resort to as Bhaiyya Ji works on build-up after build-up after build-up for the titular role but leading to nothingness.
However, the sole hope of this film is a shovel-laden, bruised and battered Manoj Bajpayee aka Ram Charan aka Bhaiyya Ji. The actor, who is one of the finest this country has produced stands here with his 100th film but fascinatingly, his career in theatrical films only represents half his success, but does showcase his longevity.
I digressed. Coming to Bhaiyya Ji, there’s such a desperate need to make it massy and whistle-worthy that director Apoorv Singh Karki has not held back with his vision for Bajpayee being this legend of a man! So, credit to Karki for being uninhibited with his use of slo-mo capture, thumping (and consistent) background score and creating a cacophonous but somewhat entertaining portrait of a myth. The humor is also on-point and while that’s fabulous, it becomes an issue when you laugh at unintentional situations. And that happens a lot!
There’s a popular song from Naezy called ‘tragedy mein comedy’ and it fits so aptly for this film where there are multiple situations throughout the film which are supposed to be tragic and punch you in the gut but instead just tickle your funny bones.
Even amidst all this comes another ray of hope and that’s giving the female lead some kick-ass things to do. Zoya Hussain isn’t there in the film to just be a trophy partner and instead gets to do a sufficient amount of badassery by firing guns, kicking and punching guys, and looking effortless while doing so.
Coming to the villains, it’s a pity to see great actors like Suvinder Vicky and Jatin Goswami being reduced to and wasted with tropes that only feed into unintentional hilarity. There is a sincere effort to make them look menacing and untouchable in the beginning but that becomes an afterthought as the film goes by. The motive of revenge should have been much more important, and much sweeter for the audience to be invested and affected by it.
Instead, you just sit back and marvel at the bewildering decisions the characters make while progressing further.
Bhaiyya Ji tries too hard to be a commercial masala potboiler and while it has an always reliable Manoj Bajpayee, a formidable Zoya Hussain and a decent background score, it falters with the execution of this being an undercooked hotchpotch of a predictable storyline.
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