Bhagam Bhag (2006)

Director:

Priyadarshan

Writer:

Neeraj Vora (written by)

Release Date:

22 December 2006 (India)

Genre:

Comedy | Mystery | Romance

Plot:

Champak Chaturvedi runs a theatrical troupe in India. He hires two men, Bunty - a graduate in Arts, and Babla- who cannot read nor write English...

Plot Keywords:

Heroine | Slapstick | Theatre Group | Amnesiac | Murder Mystery

Cast

Akshay Kumar	...	Bunty
Govinda	...	Babla
Paresh Rawal	...	Champak 'Champu' Chaturvedi
Lara Dutta	...	Munni / Nisha V. Chauhan / Aditi Desaianja
Jackie Shroff	...	London Police Commissioner J.D. Mehra
Tanushree Dutta	...	Anjali
Arbaaz Khan	...	Vikram Chauhan
Shakti Kapoor	...	Guru - Anjali's uncle
Rajpal Yadav	...	Ghulam Lakhan 'Gullu' Singh
Asrani	...	Ravinder Taneja
Manoj Joshi	...	Don
Stephanie Page	...	Girl On Train
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Farah Baig	...	Shocked theatre spectator
Ashwani Chopra	...	Doctor
Jazz Dhiman
Bill Hodder	...	Singing Dancing Doctor
Rebecca Jameson	...	Dancer
Razak Khan	...	Guru's Assistant
Sharat Saxena	...	Don's Assistant
Maushmi Udeshi	...	Nisha Mehra / Nisha V. Chauhan

Runtime:

157 min

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Color:

Color

Certification:

UK:PG | India:U | Ireland:PG

Filming Locations:

Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India

Company:

Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision

Trivia:

Govinda was meant to have a larger role but due to unexplained reasons, his role was shrunk, playing sidekick to Akshay Kumar instead.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Ramji Rao Speaking (1989)

A Chase Worth Missing out on

This movie is crazy. Now that's acceptable for a comedy but what is Priyadarshan trying to do.

Though he is quite innovative in creating a few scenes - on the whole he fails miserably in delivering a well packaged ride. I saw this movie albeit after a delay and expected a lot. After all getting to see Govinda join the fun-fare and great promos of the movie were very promising.

But it turned out to be a damp squib. The director fails miserably to conjure up the magic of 'Hera Pheri,' and this time around he seems to have totally lost the plot.

Govinda is wasted since even the best actor requires a script, Akshay Kumar is passable and does what's necessary, Paresh Rawal is nowhere half as humorous as he was portraying Baburao Ganpatrao Apte (Hera Pheri- 2000), the females are there to be forgotten.

The plot or what little there is to it, revolves around the desi stage troupe of Champak Chaturvedi (Paresh Rawal). His lead pair is Bunty (Akshay) and Babla (Govinda). The troupe gets its best break when Asrani offers them a chance to tour London for a month. Alas the heroine (Tanushree Datta) runs away having had enough of these two who keep coming on strong.

So the troupe reaches London and the chase begins to find a leading lady. Akshay meets up and enlists Lara Dutta despite her suicidal tendencies and affinity to fling herself before speeding cars…. Crazy enough… hold on.

It gets crazier with these two getting all mixed up with criminals thinking them to be the police and vice-versa … plus there are a few local goons headed by Shakti Kapoor who is also after them to extract revenge for his fractured limbs. Rajpal Yadav is good as a taxi driver and Jackie Shroff struts along occasionally as the local police chief.

Hold on… there is still something more, this chase gets now real complicated with a murder mystery attached to it. This comes across as a real spoiler... and I need not say more.

Left the way it is… a crazy senseless chase with all the misconceptions, the movie shows promise with funny moments to tickle the audience and dialogues to boot. But this mystery angle comes along and simply spoils everything.

Sanjay Dutt is supposed to have a guest appearance so watch the first 30 minutes closely.. I for one sure missed out on him. And for some reason the climax seems inspired from - It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World (1963)

Once done with, I am confused whether to call it a comedy or a tragic comedy. Watch it in the theatre if you really have nothing better to do. Or else wait for the DVD release and watch it at home… better still… borrow it … cause though this chase is humorous on occasions … most of the time it gets to you with its unnecessary complexities and simply not worth spending much on.