Mr Bachchan Movie Review: ravi Teja film fails to do justice to its source material.
Ravi Teja and Harish Shankar aren’t new to remakes. They have successfully remade Tamil, Hindi, and Malayalam films in Telugu, and delivered blockbuster successes. Be it a rooted friendship film, a swashbuckling cop story, a relationship saga, or a genre-bending gangster story, Ravi Teja and Harish Shankar have almost always managed to crack the code of remaking a film in Telugu with elements added to suit the local sensibilities. Then, one fine day, both these talents decided to remake Ajay Devgn’s Raid in Telugu as Mr Bachchan. Well, the law of averages has finally caught up to them.
When we meet Amay Patnaik in Raid, he is already married. With that simple plot device, director Rajkumar Gupta and writer Ritesh Shah could jump right into the story of an honest Income Tax officer and his team undertaking the longest IT raid in Indian history. However, in Mr Bachchan, Harish isn’t interested in any such simple detours, and prefers taking the long way of showing Ravi Teja’s Anand aka Mr Bachchan harassing, I mean, trying to woo Jikki (Bhagyashri Borse), till she finally relents because a) He is the hero. b) The plot has to move forward c) There are multiple songs left to sing and dance in odd locations where it is only her and the women dancers who are forced to wear clothes that people are unlikely to sport in chilly climates.
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It is not-so-often said that objectification lies in the eyes of the beholder. Many filmmakers who are often criticised for filming songs, or any sequence in a very suggestive manner, respond by blaming the eyes of the audience. Honestly, I’m ready to take this blame, and point out that the cinematography, dance choreography, and the costumes were voyeuristic. Of course, some might say the romance between Bachchan and Jikki is ‘old school’. As someone who doesn’t necessarily believe older actors should only act in age-appropriate roles, or not be paired opposite younger actors, the romance in Mr Bachchan was anything but old-school. Do you really think removing the girl’s dupatta clinging on to her cycle wheel is enough to fall in love? Do you really think that the remake of a tightly paced film like Raid needed four songs, despite the makers doing away with the mandatory hero introduction mass number? You might ask why I’ve been harping about romance and songs? Considering how Mr Bachchan is just a collection of random scenes fit between beautiful song compositions by Mickey J Meyer, this seems fair.
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Anyway, Mr Bachchan is named so because the protagonist’s father is a big Big B fan. Of course, this leads to mimicry attempts by Ravi Teja’s character, who channelises iconic characters of Amitabh. Now, do these scenes add to anything in the narrative? Nope, but it allows the protagonist and, to an extent, the audience to have some fun. Does the fun overstay its welcome? Absolutely. We are forced to sit through the meet-cutes and such random humour before the titular character finally enters the house of Jaggaiah (Jagapathi Babu), a political bigwig with enough connections in both State and Central governments. From here on, the actual movie starts… you might think. But the makers manage to bring in two more songs right in the middle of a seemingly intense IT raid. Full points for the commitment, but docking off more than a few for its timing.
A still from Mr Bachchan
The biggest problem with Mr Bachchan is that it fails to recreate the tension between the characters essayed by Ravi Teja and Jagapathi Babu. The stakes are never raised, and there is absolutely no doubt in our minds that Bachchan will win in his battle. Of course, we know the hero will win, but what is the fun in watching a one-sided match? Nothing that Jaggaiah does makes us believe he is really that powerful. He comes across as a garden variety head honcho of a village, who is served humble pie by the do-gooder hero. This is a role he has done so many times in his career, and yet, there is a slight interesting twist to it courtesy his mom. In fact, a lot of the characters have some interesting quirks, but they are hardly allowed to blossom. They are bulldozed into becoming just another excuse for the protagonist to flex his performance. There is no room for nuance. There is no room for finesse. All they have room for is four songs, a half-decent comedy track featuring Satya, a few punchlines from Ravi Teja, and Jagapathi Babu shouting and singing at the top of his voice.
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Now, of course, there will be comparisons between Raid and Mr Bachchan. Getting inspired by a source material, and giving it its own twist isn’t new to Telugu cinema. Even recently, we saw how National award-winning films like Ayyappanum Koshiyum and Pink were remade in Telugu. It was embellished by masala commercial cinema elements, and almost became unrecognisable. However, they never diluted the idea of the film. They had enough paraphernalia to make it seem like an altogether different film, but the core concept of the original was kept intact. It allowed the film to go on tangents and return without really disturbing the experience. In fact, even in Mr Bachchan, I quite enjoyed how the character and his profession is introduced. There was a sense of intent, and it clearly showed that even though the film is said to be a remake of Raid, it is cut from the cloth of Special 26. But then, this goes nowhere after a while.
With the title of the remake shifting from the action of the protagonist to the name of the protagonist, of course, we are in for a mass masala ride. But where is the tension? Where are the stakes? Why do we never really worry about what is going to happen to Bachchan or his family? Why bring in unnecessary cameos? Why feed into the stereotype that Telugu cinema needs to have all these decorations? Why reiterate the myth that Telugu audiences would only enjoy a film if certain elements are in place? But what was the most important question of all that crept in my mind when the credits were rolling…
Why buy the remake rights of a film if you are going to make a film that doesn’t resemble the original at all? At all.
Mr Bachchan Movie Cast: Ravi Teja, Bhagyashri Borse, Jagapathi Babu, Satya
Mr Bachchan Movie Director: Harish Shankar
Mr Bachchan Movie Rating: 1.5 stars
