Bholaa Review - A Decent Remake Barring The Gaming Fights!

Ashwin Ram

Bholaa is an official remake of Tamil film Kaithi [2019]. The film stars Ajay Devgn and Tabu in the lead roles. Made in 3D, Ajay Devgn has also directed the flick.

Premise:

The entire Police force is planned and locked, for an unimaginably huge drug deal that is set to happen nearby. Senior officer Tabu decides to involve prisoner Ajay Devgn who has just been free from jail to help her for good in this broken situation.

Writing/ Direction:

It’s a faithful remake for the most part. The story, setup, staging, tonality are all the same. These factors are cleverly retained without even an attempt for tweaking, which gives this a pass mark in the first place. The first half is highly promising as it was full-on engaging till the interval with right dosage of sentiments and thrills. The second isn’t bad, but a bit of a letdown with an addition of a routine flashback and the drama starts deteriorating as the Tabu character doesn’t contribute much. The mystery behind the hero character is maintained well till the halfway mark. The small twists and turns in between villain groups are interestingly made. The underdog segments inside the police station are nail-biting to watch. A tinge of additional drama that’s written between the father and daughter clicks, a small layer of humour works as well. The reason behind talking about stunts in this space is because they are not choreographed but written and executed. The vision is larger than life and it doesn’t work because the rest of the movie carries a difficult mood. So the over-the-top fights feel away from the story, literally like placing songs in relentless situations. Maybe yes, there are a couple of mass moves that excite, but the stunt department could have kept it simple and relatable.

Performances:

Neat act by Ajay Devgn, holds well throughout both in emotional moments and mass heroic build-up shots. Glad to see the Drishyam stars in the same team, but sadly Tabu's role is a bit underwhelming, Karthi and Narain carried a good chemistry in the original which is missing here. The young chaps stuck in the police station, the informers, and the innocent police officer have done their job decently. The villains are creepy enough and contribute in a right way to the dark mood. Abhishek Bachchan's glimpse at the end is cracker, leading to the second part.

Technicalities:

Can't believe that KGF music director Ravi Basrur has composed for this flick, as the background score is pathetic, situations are on one side and the music is on the pole opposite to that. Songs are unimpressive, both the full-fledged tracks… the Raai Laxmi item number and the melodious montage in the flashback are dull. Superb cinematography, suave camera angles and the night shots are captured in a captivating manner. Crystal clear images with great lighting and vibrant colour tone. The 3D experience is satisfying as well, mainly because it wasn’t dim anywhere, despite being 90% night sequences. Editing is a mixed bag, emotional portions carry the perfect amount of stays and pauses, but overly rushed during action. Pathetic sound effects and mixing, couldn’t hear many sounds especially during fights and BGM overlaps dialogues in a bunch of places. VFX is very neat, the vision is served with a fine quantity of CG work.

Bottomline

The action sequences are as overly cinematic as one would have thought after witnessing the trailer. But the rest of the film is fine, quite an entertaining overnight thriller that is visually appealing.

Rating - 3/ 5