Bongu Review – Yes. Indeed, it is!!!

Bharath Vijayakumar

Plot:

The hero who gets punished for no fault of his, decides to give the bad men a taste of their own medicine.

Bongu is one of those films that falters at multiple levels despite having an interesting premise. The film starts off with a car theft. It is suppossed to be exciting. There is a mad rush on screen. People deliver dialogues in fast forward mode and the editing ensures that we move on to the next scene even when the current is underway. But we are unperturbed because everything happens clumsily. It does not seem to be a lack of intent from the makers but the ineptitude does stare glaringly on our faces.

The title card introduces the hero as 'Rare Piece' Natty. We do agree. He is quite unique with his nonchalant expressions and a voice that has a very peculiar attraction. He does operate in this mode throughout the film. But these type of performances require someone at the opposite end to make it work. Sadly, the performances in Bongu fail to reach even a minimum threshold. Some of these actors are reasonably well known but they look totally out of place in the film. Save a very few laughs and a decent stretch involving comedian Chaams towards the end, Bongu keeps playing out jokes that leave us with a poker face much like its hero.

The film has multiple heist sequences but we are hardly able to follow the modus operandi (if there was one in the first place). We are used to this gimmick in big star films. In those films the star's attitude, obeisance of the hardcore fans , a glossy look and most importantly a rousing BGM might have helped us overlook the basic dumbness. But here there is no place to hide as there is nothing to camouflage the shortcomings. After a point we do not know what is happening on the screen but the much bigger issue is that we are not interested to know.

Bottomline:

Bongu is a difficult film to sit through and ends up as one tiring watch. The title of the film should pretty much double up as the bottomline of the film review too.

Rating: 1.5/5