Quite enjoyable actually, Bang Bang. Besides the
anticipated dance moves and music, the meticulously angled shots of colourful
locales and stunts, let’s take another reason why. Throughout the film one can play a guessing game of
how many references have been put together in a patch work.
The Jai and
Veeru reference; one dies and the other avenges this. The quintessential “Maa”.
The Krishh series style of stunts
including the rooftop to rooftop leap. The car chases that will take you back
to the Dhoom series. The police and
bad guy fight in the little streets in Shimla with their changing height and
puzzling visibility might remind you of Lootera.
A far fetched thought of course, but Rajveer and Harleen on the beach might
remotely remind you of Rohit and Sonia in Kaho
Na Pyaar Hai. Then there are scenes with Katrina continuing those poses she
does in her ads of bathroom toiletries and cookies.
Released on
Dussehra, this film even had a mythological reference to Ravan. He is
symbolically burned, and it takes more than one attempt to kill him.
Good turned bad
guy (oh well, that was a spoiler), the ambiguously addressed character of
Hritik is the expected superhero package- the abs, speed, anticipation, quick
wit, a mission for justice inspired by past events. And as usually happens in
contemporary high budget entertainers of Bombay cinema, his brilliance is
reinforced and elevated by the lack of intelligence of the female lead
character. Harleen is numb to danger and has to be guided on how to avoid it;
she comically asks the Kohinoor thief why he shoots people, does not believe
him the first time he says he is “an international criminal”, and faithfully
follows him no matter what he does under the sun. She does not realise that the
smashed crystal cannot be a diamond until the terrorist and her captor explains
this to her. And she is inspired so much by a love for Rajveer that after all
this she is magically bright enough to trace out his home address.
To add here, if
we are going to be political, let’s not even begin talking about the naming of
the terrorists, as well as the subtle way Rajveer, in his conversation with
Harleen’s protracted “Mamaji” walks to the foreground with J&K Bank bang
behind him. Again, regarding the audience’s intelligence, we did not need
Rajveer’s swimming trophies to realise that he escaped through water.
Besides this, we
of course should not expect any bullets to hurt our protagonists until
absolutely necessary, while their bullets cause all their pursuers to tumble
down one by one- that would be too real.
This movie is meant to be a fun outing and our heroes need a long life
span, even better if there is a happy ending with a daring feat.
I understand the
family entertainment value, but really, why is the ghar actually called “Ghar”? (All caps that too). I wonder what the
Dharma Productions folks would have thought about this.
