Movie: BHAIYYA JI
Cast: Manoj Bajpayee, Vipin Sharma, Jatin Goswami, Suvinder Vicky, Zoya Hussain, Akash Makhija, Bhageerathi Bai Kadam, Amrendra Sharma
Direction: Apoorv Singh Karki
A cracked display on a cellphone shows a missed call from Bhaiyya Ji. The preface: Ram Charan (Manoj Bajpayee) is at his pre-wedding event alongside bride-to-be Mithali (Zoya Hussain). He dotes on his stepbrother Vedant (Aakash Makhija) alongside stepmom (Bhageerathi Bai Kadam).
The celebs are derailed when news arrives that Vedant, on his way from Delhi to Bihar, is a victim of a fatal road accident. On a call from police officer Madan (Vipin Sharma), Ram arrives in Delhi where he realises that Vedant is killed by Abhimanyu (Jatin Goswami). the ruffian son of senior villain, feudal lord Chandraban Singh (Surinder Vicky). Thus, Ram Charan renews his violence. The stage is set for a bloody saga of vendetta, violence, mayhem.
You walk into the theatre lured by the presence of Manoj Bajpayee and get trapped in a film that looks unabashedly influenced by a Tollywood script. Minutes into the torture chamber Manoj Bajpayee tells you how difficult it is to do a ‘Ravi Teja’.
The introduction of the villains is loud and crass, if not gruesome. You see Wicked Vicky as Chandraban Singh with a cleaver fatally silencing a victim of his son’s sexcapades. The son is on another high with a scar from a hot street food tawa, and sports a facial semblance to Zeenat Aman in Satyam Sivam Sundaram. Wicked Vicky hunts down the injured Bhaiyya Ji, gives him a watery grave at half time. Surely one is not so naïve.
Stocked with popcorn and cola, you are stalked by Bhaiyya Ji whose “scout team” gets him from the deep waters before Wicked Vicky’s Joker Army can. In utter violation of erstwhile instructions and treading the path of martyrdom, members of the former headed by Amrendra Sharma decide to inform Bhabi in waiting. Mithali, who doubles up as a doctor, wrestler, shooter, freestyle fighter, and anything else in the a la carte. You are truly on that roller coaster which is normally operated by Ravi Teja or Balakrishna on special days.
Manoj Bajpayee looks trim, young and angry enough. It would need a certain bias in favour of the space he operates in to say that he delivers Bhaiyya Ji. We may well conclude that he falls short of the demands of the commercial requirements of the film and of director Apoorv Singh Karki — their second date. It is also a case of a huge miscast. This is a film for Salman Khan if you had a budget and Rajkummar Rao if you had the passion. The two baddies are straight from the factory. Nothing new except that Wicked Vicky sports spectacles. That is the novelty of our new feudal lord.
As the powerful stepmother, Bhageerathi Bai Kadam is called upon to chew more than she can (or the audience) swallow. Again, a bad casting decision. In a Salman paradigm this is a role for Shabana, Aruna Irani and in the Rao model for Deepti Naval. Even the ever-reliable Vipin Sharma can hardly breathe life into the role of a corrupt cop. Zoya tries hard to do a Bhumi Pednekar. Sometimes things are so theatrical like the mujhe pratishodh chahiye is a loud mere Karan Arjun zaroor ayenge. Manoj Bajpayee very often barks his dialogues in spurts of seeming anger. The metamorphoses in synthetic.
Finally, Bhaiyya Ji establishes what a great actor Ravi Teja is.
