It's an suitably named movie, with plot elements popping in and changing the order of things without notice. Certainly, the only real connection Bhindi Baazaar Inc. has with the well-known Mumbai market of the same name is the chaos and randomness of the action here.
Some good acting hindered by an awful screenplay makes director Ankush Bhatt's Bhindi Baazaar Inc. a rather boring affair. Set around power struggles in a gang of pickpockets from Mumbai's downtown ghettos, Kapil Gulati's tale sure is interesting enough, with potential to thrill. But, by the time screenplay and dialogue writer Ghalib Asad Bhopali gets done with it, Bhindi Baazaar Inc. loses all steam.
The movie uses a game of chess, played between Shroff (Kay Kay Menon) and Tez (Gautham Sharma), as a metaphor for the fight back for power within a gang of pickpockets run by Mamu (Pawan Malhotra). Mamu's gang operates out of Bhindi Baazaar, with the ambitious Fateh (Prashant Narayanan) as his most talented operative and heir apparent. Also in the game are Pandeyji (Piyush Mishra), Mamu's archrival, who heads a gang always at odds with Mamu's boys. In the midst, there are characters like Shabana (Vedita Pratap Singh), Mamu's sexy saali who has plans of her own to grab power, Kanjri (Shilpa Shukla), another pickpocket who is in love with Fateh and Simran (Shweta Verma), a girl unconnected with the world of crime who Tez spots and falls in love with.
The crux of the action is the power struggle that begins when Fateh decides he can't wait long enough to take on Mamu's place in the hierarchy and puts in motion a plan that will destroy all the stability of the game, leading even a pawn to become a vazir, as the dialogue here puts it.
The trouble with Bhindi Baazaar Inc. lies in how much the makers of the film seem in awe of their own smarts, having picked that chess board allegory for the tale. With the flashback narrative of Tez speaking to Shroff about all that has happened, crucial moments of action are interrupted to have Gautam and Kay Kay mouth throwaway lines about 'pyadas', vazirs and 'badshahs', which the filmmakers must imagine make a world of sense to the audiences. Unluckily, they don't.
The movie also relies too much on the most random of elements to make a difference here, a multitude of deus ex machina that changes everything. That Jackie Shroff's two minute character makes so much of a difference to everything that's happening here boggles the mind, as does the most random climax, with a homicidal nurse with a blinding hatred of pickpockets (she's a real person!) delivering the final comeuppance to the lead character here. In the process, what is neglected is good sense.
It's a disappointment that Bhindi Baazaar Inc. is the sort of movie it is, for with the likes of Pawan Malhotra, Prashant Narayanan and Piyus Mishra in key roles, the movie is not found wanting for acting talent. Though the trio perform well in their roles, Prashant Narayanan carrying off an adequate amount of self-confidence as Fateh, the movie doesn't give any of them scope enough. Dipti Naval and Shilpa Shukla also get the most minimal of screen time, while the debutant Gautham Sharma, while reasonably okay as Tez, takes up too much of it. Shweta Verma needs to do better though, than her turn as Simran, if she is to have a future in the industry. Vedita Pratap Singh turns on the heat and not much else, with her skin show, as does Caterina Lopez in item number, taan ke seena. Kay Kay Menon doesn't have much to do as Shroff, and one has no idea what Jackie Shroff is doing in the movie, bad wig and all.
On the technical side, the movie is a huge letdown, the cinematography from Ram Shreyas Rao and Viraj Singh failing to capture the natural hustle and bustle of the area they're shooting in, especially after the early reports of how the movie was shot in the midst of downtown Mumbai. Sandeep Surya's music too, isn't much to talk of.
Bhindi Baazaar Inc. seems to take its title from the baffled state of mind that the movie was conceived in by its makers. With potential unrealized and talent wasted, the movie tells a story that could have done better in more skilled hands.
Some good acting hindered by an awful screenplay makes director Ankush Bhatt's Bhindi Baazaar Inc. a rather boring affair. Set around power struggles in a gang of pickpockets from Mumbai's downtown ghettos, Kapil Gulati's tale sure is interesting enough, with potential to thrill. But, by the time screenplay and dialogue writer Ghalib Asad Bhopali gets done with it, Bhindi Baazaar Inc. loses all steam.
The movie uses a game of chess, played between Shroff (Kay Kay Menon) and Tez (Gautham Sharma), as a metaphor for the fight back for power within a gang of pickpockets run by Mamu (Pawan Malhotra). Mamu's gang operates out of Bhindi Baazaar, with the ambitious Fateh (Prashant Narayanan) as his most talented operative and heir apparent. Also in the game are Pandeyji (Piyush Mishra), Mamu's archrival, who heads a gang always at odds with Mamu's boys. In the midst, there are characters like Shabana (Vedita Pratap Singh), Mamu's sexy saali who has plans of her own to grab power, Kanjri (Shilpa Shukla), another pickpocket who is in love with Fateh and Simran (Shweta Verma), a girl unconnected with the world of crime who Tez spots and falls in love with.
The crux of the action is the power struggle that begins when Fateh decides he can't wait long enough to take on Mamu's place in the hierarchy and puts in motion a plan that will destroy all the stability of the game, leading even a pawn to become a vazir, as the dialogue here puts it.
The trouble with Bhindi Baazaar Inc. lies in how much the makers of the film seem in awe of their own smarts, having picked that chess board allegory for the tale. With the flashback narrative of Tez speaking to Shroff about all that has happened, crucial moments of action are interrupted to have Gautam and Kay Kay mouth throwaway lines about 'pyadas', vazirs and 'badshahs', which the filmmakers must imagine make a world of sense to the audiences. Unluckily, they don't.
The movie also relies too much on the most random of elements to make a difference here, a multitude of deus ex machina that changes everything. That Jackie Shroff's two minute character makes so much of a difference to everything that's happening here boggles the mind, as does the most random climax, with a homicidal nurse with a blinding hatred of pickpockets (she's a real person!) delivering the final comeuppance to the lead character here. In the process, what is neglected is good sense.
It's a disappointment that Bhindi Baazaar Inc. is the sort of movie it is, for with the likes of Pawan Malhotra, Prashant Narayanan and Piyus Mishra in key roles, the movie is not found wanting for acting talent. Though the trio perform well in their roles, Prashant Narayanan carrying off an adequate amount of self-confidence as Fateh, the movie doesn't give any of them scope enough. Dipti Naval and Shilpa Shukla also get the most minimal of screen time, while the debutant Gautham Sharma, while reasonably okay as Tez, takes up too much of it. Shweta Verma needs to do better though, than her turn as Simran, if she is to have a future in the industry. Vedita Pratap Singh turns on the heat and not much else, with her skin show, as does Caterina Lopez in item number, taan ke seena. Kay Kay Menon doesn't have much to do as Shroff, and one has no idea what Jackie Shroff is doing in the movie, bad wig and all.
On the technical side, the movie is a huge letdown, the cinematography from Ram Shreyas Rao and Viraj Singh failing to capture the natural hustle and bustle of the area they're shooting in, especially after the early reports of how the movie was shot in the midst of downtown Mumbai. Sandeep Surya's music too, isn't much to talk of.
Bhindi Baazaar Inc. seems to take its title from the baffled state of mind that the movie was conceived in by its makers. With potential unrealized and talent wasted, the movie tells a story that could have done better in more skilled hands.
Overall, it is an average film.
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