Bangistan (2015)

Two blundering terrorists with lofty ideologies, but ordinary talent, on a mission to change the world.

Director:

Karan Anshuman

Writers:

Puneet Krishna, Sumit Purohit

Stars:

Jacqueline Fernandez, Riteish Deshmukh, Pulkit Samrat

Cast

Credited cast:
Jacqueline Fernandez	...	Rosie
Riteish Deshmukh	...	Hafeez
Pulkit Samrat	...	Praveen
Zachary Coffin	...	Stanislav the Polish Cop
Rajesh Sharma	...	Swami Gaumukhanand Gowswami
Tom Alter	...	The Imam
Kumud Mishra	...	Abba / Guruji
Arya Babbar	...	Zulfi
Chandan Roy Sanyal	...	Tamim Iqbal
Tomasz Karolak	...	Wilhelm
Marta Zmuda Trzebiatowska	...	Ms Polanski
Vaibhav Mathur	...	Bhogilal
Shivkumar Subramaniam	...	The Shankaracharya
Aakash Dabhade	...	Sanichara
Aakash Pandey	...	Sutradhar

Storyline

Bangistan is a whip smart and uproarious satire on fundamentalism and the story of two unlikely terrorists, the antitheses of each other, with a common destructive goal. Concerned by the unrest in the name of religion, Subcontinental leaders of Muslims and Hindus, the Imam and the Shankaracharya, announce that they're attending the International Peace Conference in Krakow in a joint effort to help unite the two religions in perpetual harmony. Rival rabble-rousing ragtag organizations, the Islamist Al-Kaam Tamam and right-wing political party Maa Ka Dal separately recruit and brainwash Hafeez and Praveen to suicide bomb the conference so that they may continue to wield their local influence. After a rigorous, and hilarious, 'training' period the two men switch their religious identities to stay under the radar. Hafeez, the jihadi, masquerades as a conservative Hindu, Ishwarchand; while Praveen, the Hindu soldier, dons the garb of a practicing Muslim, Allahrakha. Focused on the mission,...

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Genres:

Comedy

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Details

Country:

India

Language:

Hindi

Release Date:

7 August 2015 (USA)

Filming Locations:

Kraków, Malopolskie, Poland

Company Credits

Production Co:

Alvernia Studios, Excel Entertainment, Junglee Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

135 min

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Bobbitsky's name is inspired by Lorena Bobbit and his bob vest is called Spudnik - a play on the fact that he's a potato farmer and Sputnik, Russia's first satellite in space.

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Soundtracks

Maula
Written by: Puneet Krishna
Produced by: Ram Sampath
Performed by: Rituraj Mohanty and Ram Sampath

User Reviews

Excellent!

Reading the other reviews all I can think is that I went to see a different movie as I thought Bangistan was excellent from start to finish.

I thought it was thoroughly entertaining and carried with it many wonderful messages – and many of those messages are ones that the world desperately needs to heed at this moment in time. Yes they may have been made in a fun, roundabout way, but hey – they're still important messages.

I felt the premise of the story was an interesting one, that raised all sorts of crucial points, and that the build up to what was a great ending was woven superbly with all sorts of minor issues to deal with along the way such as lambs for Eid, alcohol, a love interest (or sorts), the funeral/immolation scene, and the way that each of the major characters had interpreted each others holy book.

I watched it in a cinema full of Pakistanis and heard many of them laugh out loud in a nice way – which was great to hear, as with this kind of film it is only too easy to offend or to shy away from offending – it is a fine line.

Maybe that was because a lot of them were probably expecting it to be an out- and-out Muslim-bashing film (with a title like Bangistan, who didn't?), and the fact that it was a very fair movie with a positive message to all religions made them let their hair down a bit and enjoy it.

I really don't know what people were expecting from this movie as some of the reviews are so off the mark that I'd question their motives, and in some cases I'd question whether whoever wrote them has actually seen the movie.

Seriously, I worry that so many people have been negative about a film that has such a positive message for one and all. If there were more movies like this - movies that highlight the futility and silliness of hatred - the world would be a far nicer place.

And the video as the titles rolled was terrific, as was lots of the music throughout.

I wouldn't be surprised if this is one of those slow burners. Once all the negative people have got their personal moans out of the way other people will start to see the movie for what it is - a well made satire on the current woes of the world.

Peace :-)