Friday, July 8, 2011

289. Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap (I am not old, your father is old)



Lately, I've started to fall out of love with my guilty pleasure. Bollywood.
The plots of recent films have just been too daft and corny.
But, thankfully, my faith has been restored by one of India's biggest stars, (dare I say) 68-year-old Amitabh Bachchan.
Blimey, this was like watching an Asian Clint Eastwood (or maybe Paul Newman), who could sing.
Bachchan is given the chance to own the screen in Puri Jagannath's Bbuddah Hoga Terra Baap - and, boy, does he take it.
He has the role of a gangster who rolls into Mumbai from Paris where he has been effectively in exile for 20 years.
His rival coincides with a mobster swearing to kill the local police chief (Sonu Sood).
At first it appears that Bachchan's character is in league with local mafia but things aren't quite what they seem.
What is clear is that he is a ladies man and quickly sees red when anyone points out his age.
In fact, he tries to defy time (quirkily, he wears three watches) with a rather extravagant dress sense and attempts to charm women young enough to be his grand-daughters.
If this sounds a bit creepy, it's not. Bachchan is so smooth he gets away with it. And his gift of the gab not only works with the lasses, he also has a quickfire retort to his friends and enemies alike.
Sood is lively as the all action policeman who is trying to clear up, almost single-handedly, Mubai's streets. He is arrogant in the face of the law-breakers but strangely clumsy when trying to bag a beauty (Sonal Chauhan).
But while Sood, Chauhan and the villainous Prakash Raj are a fine ensemble, there is no way of escaping the fact that this is Bachchan's vehicle.
He even proves he has still got the rhythm in his feet with a couple of sharp dance numbers.
BBuddah Hoga Terra Baap seems to have been dwarfed by the popularity currently of Delhi Belly and was on its last night at Nottingham Cineworld tonight.
That's a shame because there is some great action and a fair few laughs and, for me, one of the Bollywood performances of the year.
Rating? 8/10

0 comments:

Post a Comment

Blog Archive