Film Review: 'Bang Bang'

Opened: 2 October 2014
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif, Danny Denzongpa, Jaaved Jaffrey, Jimmy Shergill, Pawan Malhotra
Director: Siddharth Anand
Producer: Fox Star Studios
Rating: ★½

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Hrithik Roshan disappoints in Bang Bang!

With a frivolous name like Bang Bang! I hardly expected an Academy Award winning film. At the same time though, I wasn’t quite expecting this pile of soulless shit either. Bang Bang! is hands down one of the worst films of the year and does absolutely zero justice to an actor of Hrithik Roshan’s stature, and is further proof that no matter how hard she tries, Katrina Kaif is and will always remain a pretty face and nothing more.

Essentially an action film, the script of Bang Bang! is so pedestrian it seems to have been put together by a passer by on the street. The plot unfolds in London, where after a heist, the crown jewels go missing and are seemingly in the possession of an international crook, Rajveer (Hrithik, basically reprising his role from Dhoom:2 – albeit this time with more swagger and an extra pair of abs).

Whilst on the run, he unwittingly stumbles across Harleen (Katrina), a bank receptionist with a non existent love life (which in itself is hard to believe, given that she’s such a babe and walks around in the skimpiest of attire, but for the purposes of this film I was willing to forgive even that).

They fall in love quicker than you can say ‘Bang Bang’, and from here on we get a weakly stitched together plot of blood thirsty terrorists, international espionage, an unexciting family drama and a romance so superficial it beggars belief.

I have nothing against films like Bang Bang! I loved the Dhoom trilogy and was expecting more of the same here, so went in with very minimal expectations, but even then I was left disappointed.

There's plenty of sheen, eye candy and gloss in the film, but there’s only so much pretty packaging can do to cover up a faulty product. That aside, I’m not even sure who’s bright idea it was to remake Knight & Day, given that that film sucked big time too.

Besides its fetching music and gaping cinematography, there’s very little in this film to recommend. Both Hrithik and Katrina are beyond artificial and chip in sub standard performances, and even their much hyped chemistry fails to take off after a certain point and lacks the fizz of say a Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara. It just goes to show how important a director is in these situations and it quickly becomes apparent that Siddharth Anand is no Zoya Akhtar.

Katrina especially, hams it up like no tomorrow, probably in the vain hope that it'll come across as endearing, but sorry love, hamming doesn't make you cute, it just grates. Danny Dezongpa plays it to the gallery and there's nothing here he hasn’t done before, while Jimmy Shergill, Deepti Naval and Kanwaljeet are merely there as space fillers.

Laying on a weak foundation of piss poor direction, a sloppy screenplay, unbelievable action sequences, plenty of eye roll inducing, cringeworthy, WTF moments and actors who seem more interested in looking good than acting, Bang Bang! turns out to be a colossal disappointment and is a film that very stupidly takes its audience for granted. Sure, it may go on to make wads of cash, but given the choice I’d pick Haider over this trash any day. Avoid.