Cinema: Film Review

India Today, March 15, 1999
March 15, 1999

FILM REVIEW: LAL BADSHAH
Spoofing an Icon

Bachchan's new film tries in vain to capture his old magic.

By Anupama Chopra

Bachchan with Koirala: a big letdown Movie: Lal Badshah
Director: K C Bokadia
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Mainsha Koirala, Shilpa Shetty, Amrish Puri

Amitabh Bachchan has always set his own standards. When he soared the heights, other heroes struggled to catch up with his tailwind. For decades he was the undisputed No. 1 to 10 and in Mumbai studios they solemnly called him God. Unfortunately he seems to be plumbing the depths with the same aplomb. Lal Badshah, his latest attempt to capture those halcyon days is even worse than Bachchan's all time classic dud, Mrityudaata.

Forget cohesive story. Forget consistent characterisation. Forget even the minimum cinematic requirement, continuity. Lal Badshah is a shoddy collage of random anecdotes -- presumably Bokadia simply shot with whichever artists gave him dates -- strung together, masquerading as a film. Bachchan reprises his role of the Robin Hood figure. He rescues the masses from the unholy trinity: Amrish Puri (looking like an extra from The Mask of Zorro), Mukesh Rishi (a corrupt cop) and Raghuvaran, who usually excels in regional cinema, is reduced to a glowering maniac here. The baddies want, like Bhiku Mhatre, to be "Mumbai ka king" but Badshah continually foils their evil plans to buy arms, rape women, grab land and so on. Their tedious sparring is interrupted by the occasional song break -- Manisha Koirala plays a dizzy insurance agent (surely a first in Hindi cinema) and Shilpa Shetty, the daughter of a reformed lawyer.

For reasons best known to Bokadia, the action keeps shifting to Rajasthani forts while Badshah speaks with a Bihari accent. Somewhere along the way, Badshah's long lost parents show up. The mother simply wanders into a temple where Badshah is praying and the father (Bachchan in a bad wig) just happens to walk into the villain's house. The father, till now mentally unhinged, recovers miraculously, joins hands with his son and offs the evil trio.

Bokadia, who desperately needs a crash course in elementary film technique, tries hard to create the Bachchan of yesteryears, even pulling out of the woodwork Bachchan's favourite mom, Nirupa Roy (remember Deewar, Muqaddar ka Sikandar). If only it were that easy. Bachchan struggles to give conviction to this cinematic wreck. But even he can't pull off wearing a red coat and dancing with much younger girls. The icon is reduced to caricature. The legend becomes its own spoof.

If you are one of the millions who huddled in dark auditoriums to applaud the Bachchan magic, who still recalls his magnificent performances, who still cries when he dies in a cable TV re-run of Sholay, don't see Lal Badshah. It's too painful.

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