Ravi Jadhav is a filmmaker whom I adore, for making Marathi films like Balak Palak (2012) and Natarang (2010), to name a few. Unfortunately, his foray into Bollywood with a musical drama does not really impress.
Taraat (Riteish Deshmukh) is a small-time extortionist who works for a local politician in the day and plays street music with his squad in the night. When he meets Christina (Nargis Fakhri), an aspiring musician from the Big Apple who is in Mumbai in lookout for a music group whom she can collaborate with, Taraat instantly falls head over heels in love with her. This drives him to become a better man and subsequently forces him to cajole his group to make music so that Christina can participate in a talent contest. This nth variation of a seemingly original story is what the film is all about, along with some boring side arcs that only add noise to this otherwise sloppy "single".
Banjo tries too hard to showcase a story, where in reality, there is none. It's a faulty re-rendering of stories about aspiring musicians who want to make it big in this competitive world. (Did anyone say Rock On!! (2008)? Maybe Rock On!! 2 (2016)? No? Never mind.) And how do you do that? By growing long hair, looking dope, and banging on instruments like they are scrap materials. Taraat is a delinquent person who just wants to get into Christina's pants, but hopes to take it slow. The comedy is very average and will only lead to two to four chuckles throughout the 140-minute slow-moving affair.
Fakhri should probably just stop acting and stick to modelling. Her co-star Deshmukh tries hard, but one blames the fruitless script more. Supporting cast is mostly present to handle comedy, but are found to be accidentally inducing over-smart drama. Basically, the characters move here and there and bang on instruments in order to produce music which the audience are supposed to think is pure gold.
There's a sequence where Christina tries to improve the group's morale by citing success stories of popular musicians like 50 Cent, Jimi Hendrix, The Bee Gees, and Led Zeppelin. If you are a fan of at least one of these, you should skip Banjo and go see Parched (2016) instead.
BOTTOM LINE: Ravi Jadhav's "Banjo" is an ambitious film that fails because of poor writing and a very bad voice. Switch channels during the TV premiere.
Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES
