Badam Rani Gulam Chor

wogma rating: Add to that never-watched 'To Watch' list (?) - Those who like laughing in a crowd can catch it on the big screen.

quick review:

Satish Rajwade’s Badam Rani Gulaam Chor is a film that hides a concept that had the potential to blow your mind. Since the makers squandered away the opportunity to make a memorable film, what we end up with is a fairly enjoyable little flick that isn’t half a bad watch. It has enough funny moments to still make it worth your while.

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Director: Satish Rajwade
Running time: 140 minutes
Categories: Regional
Genres: Comedy, Politics, Social
More Movie Info

Despite the impressions that social and online media seem to be giving, there were other films that released this week as well, ones that did not have a caped crusader as their main protagonist. One of them, Mumbai Pune Mumbai director Satish Rajwade’s latest film, Badam Rani Gulam Chor, is an interestingly written and narrated film that is engaging for the most part, even if it often transgresses into being a tad silly.

Upendra Limaye, Anand Ingale and Pushkar Shrotri play three friends who live together in a house named ‘Unbreakables’, something that supposedly signifies the nature of their friendship. What their characters have been named doesn’t matter, because they refer to each other as ‘Chaku’ (knife), ‘Maakad’ (monkey) and ‘Pustak’ (book), respectively. Enter Mukta Barve, nicknamed ‘Pencil’ - a woman who is destined to change their lives for good. Simultaneously, Anand Ingle’s character works at a news channel, which is currently covering a major political story, a bust up between two politicians who belonged to the same party.

There is inherently nothing new about either of these stories by themselves. But start watching them together, start seeing near-metaphysical connections between them, start drawing parallels between the two and suddenly they seem to be far more similar to each other than it appears on the surface.

These two story lines, the parallels drawn between them and the sheer thought behind intertwining them to tell a story is what sets this film apart. In fact, at the concept level it is a stroke of sheer genius. A tantalizingly intelligent use of a medium whose power is currently in shackles because it is easier to do what has been done and make money than pushing the envelope at the risk of losing it.

Using comedy backed by strong performances, the film tries hard to do justice to this thought, and achieves it in some measure, but not completely. The reason? Instead of going full throttle on the concept of connecting two seemingly disjoint stories by using the power of narrative and editing, the effort seems to be more on providing a screwball comedy instead. Not a bad idea at all, but one that ends up affecting the basic premise.

Still, Badam Rani Gulam Chor manages to have the audience in splits for the most part, not least because of some razor sharp dialogue and some extremely talented actors mouthing them. Limaye, Ingle and Shrotri are in top form, looking and feeling like their characters all the way. True, they almost seem to walk around with signboards bearing their character sketches on it, but that in part adds to the charm of it, the fact that at least the director didn’t hold back on how far over the top he was taking the things.

Yet, it feels like a promising film that went unfulfilled. The concept and narrative technique needed a more evolved vision and guiding hand to take it to fruition; the will to hold back when required and to go all out when the need arose; the realization that such an opportunity, material like this, might not arise tomorrow, so why not make the most of it now.

Badam Rani Gulam Chor is the kind of film that, had it been treated right, would have made for an intimate, stimulating watch, a home video cult. As it stands, it is a series of smart-and-silly laughs that would make for passable weekend viewing on the tube or a family outing at the theatres.

This article is by guest author Pradeep Menon. Pradeep is a filmmaker and a dreamer. He loves books, rain, winters, tea and his parents. Cinema, however, is the only truth he believes in. He breathes and bleeds film, mostly in hues of saffron, white, green and blue. You can watch his short films at www.youtube.com/cyberpradeep.

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3 readers - 2 yays 0 so-so 1 nays

Yay! Thumbs Up, by Mahesh

Yay! Thumbs Up, by Raju

Nay! Thumbs Down, by Sneha N : The film is an absolute torture, with pathetic jokes and is a complete waste of money.

This page has additional observations, other than the ones noted in the main review.

Parental Guidance:

  • Violence: Suggestive comic aggression but no violence.
  • Language: Abuses are sometimes suggested, but never said out loud.
  • Nudity & Sexual content: None
  • Concept: Interesting parallel drawn between a love triangle involving best friends and a political race between two politicians.
  • General Look and Feel: Shot primarily in natural light, the film has a natural, easy look and feel.

Detailed Ratings (out of 5):

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Badam Rani Gulam Chor - Cast, crew, links

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Running time:
140 minutes
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Comments (4)

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Mahesh

must watchable movie....really enjoyed...three cheers for the writer of this movie

Sneha N

The film is an absolute torture and a complete waste of money. The film has pathetic humour, disgusting storyline and characters and their names that irritate you to no end. Coining names like Chaku, Pustak, Makad and Pencil is an absolute nonsense and it irritates you till the end of the movie.

Also the camera focuses on the full size faces of pathetic characters like Upendra Limaye and Anand Ingle, which borrrrrrre you to no end. Imagine watching the irritating characters with a pathetic story line with their full faces only on the huge cinema screen for a good fifteen minutes !!!!!!!!! It isnt entertaining !!

In the second half of the movie, the plot is lost and fails to convince or even explain the audience what is happening!! The movie seems to be made just for the heck of it. I would give it a minus five star rating!!

I watched this film last sunday at PVR, where I saw people actually dozing off during the movie while others cursing themselves for coming to watch the movie !!

To sum it up, there is not one maakad but four maakads. The talent of these four good actors has been wasted and the character names should have been like makad1, maakad 2, maakad 3 and maakad 4!!

Not expected from a director who created Mum- Pune- Mum! :(

Raju

Experimenting with color and B&W character in the same frame for the first time in Indian cinema..............its very nice.

@Sneha ouch!

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