Decoding Bunty Aur Babli (2005)

Movie no. 2/100

After watching a rather somber ‘Pyaasa’ the other day, I decided to watch something light for my second outing in this 100 movie project. I decided to watch Shaad Ali’s 2005 comedy, Bunty Aur Babli (BB), starring Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukerjee and Amitabh Bachchan. A flawed and lengthy film, BB was a commercial success in its time and the movie garnered great praise for its leads, the chartbusting music and the humor-filled dialogues.

 The plot involves two small-town simpletons, Rakesh and Vimmi (played by Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerjee), who escape from their ordinary lives to pursue their dreams. Though Rakesh and Vimmi set out to become the next Tata-Birla and Miss India, respectively, they end up conning people for a living. They take the aliases Bunty and Babli, and wear various disguises to con people. To nab this notorious duo, JCP Dashrath Singh (played by Amitabh Bachchan) is appointed. Though most of the scheming and plotting initially seems foolish, it is the humor and the rightly nuanced performances by the leads that makes it a fun watch. Among all the plots, the one where they ‘sell’ Taj Mahal is hilarious and makes you laugh even when you watch it again after years. Sadly though, with a three-hour long run time, it does test your patience. The pace seems uneven – especially in the second half which has plenty of lengthy scenes, that makes you feel the remote in your hand is nothing less than a boon! For example, the sequence where Rakesh and Dashrath meet in a bar, followed by the item song of the year, Kajra Re – they only add a lot of length and help very little.

To be honest, BB is still very likeable, in spite of its flaws. In a period where mainstream Hindi cinema meant big-budgets and candy floss, BB was the first movie to steer the mainstream into small towns, with characters that were extremely real and believable. This movie came out at a time when real, rural and rustic touch was seen only in serious cinema, such as Maqbool and Omkara. BB, in a way, paved the way for the Dum Lagake Haishas and Bareilly ki Barfis of today. Also, coming from the YRF stable, with no signs of grandeur, this was a welcome change (though they did take off to exotic locations and opulent sets for their beautifully shot songs).

As I have already mentioned, this movie worked majorly for three reasons – stellar performances, its foot-tapping music and the tongue-in-cheek dialogues. Both Abhishek and Rani, through their various disguises, get to display their acting abilities. While their comic-timing was almost perfect, it is BigB who takes the cake, with his straight-faced, hilarious dialogues. The credit for this goes to the screenplay and dialogue writer, Jaideep Sahni, who created these witty dialogues in simple UP dialect. Complementing the narrative perfectly was the hugely popular soundtrack by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy – Undeniably, one of their best works till date! All the songs were on the charts for months and songs like Kajra Re continue to remain popular with the millennials. Such was the craze for this movie that Rani Mukerjee’s collared Salwar-Kameez had become a nationwide rage! Even Pepsi tried to cash in on the frenzy and came up with their ‘bun-tea aur bubbly’ campaign.

In true Bunty Aur Babli style, Yeh World hai na World, ismein do tareh ke log hote hai, ek jinhe yeh picture pasand nahi aayi aur dusre jinhe yeh pasand aayi. Humesha dusre category mein raho…!