Lead Actor: Tamannaah Bhatia
Director: Madhur Bhandarkar
Duration: 1 hour and 58 minutes
Films by Madhur Bhandarkar are famous for going beyond the obvious. The director established a standard with his kind of “genuine” and “reflective” filmmaking on Page 3, Fashion and Heroine. However, Babli Bouncer is a significant departure beyond that. Bhandarkar makes a long-awaited endeavour a cheerful one with the Disney+ Hotstar original movie. He had attempted a similar manoeuvre with Dil Toh Baccha Hai Ji. Does he succeed in working the same spell on Babli Bouncer once more?
Storyline
The story of Babli, played by Tamannaah Bhatia, a youngster with inherent physical capability, is portrayed in the film Babli Bouncer. She can drink jugs of lassi without stopping and comfortably swallow 15 parathas. She fits your preconceived notions of what a “desi” woman representing a rural Hindi-speaking region should seem like. A Haryanvi accent should be present! Check for English language proficiency! Babli moves to Delhi after being employed as security at a pub in the capital. Though her ambitions are not her own, she rapidly realises that drive in life doesn’t cease with marriage or starting a family. The story’s main plot doesn’t take any big turns or surprises.
Babli Bouncer appears to be the result of unimaginative and thoughtless writing. The plot is foreseeably apparent from the start. The motivations underlying Bhandarkar’s idea for Babli are enigmatic. The narrative first appears to be about a female bouncer in the nation’s capital, but that illusion is quickly dispelled. Babli’s character is poorly developed and has any significant arcs. The movie makes a pitiful effort to give it a powerful female voice, but it does it by leaning on a guy and Babli’s yearning for him. When it does attempt to make a point, it comes across as rushed and caricaturist. This is a letdown for a director who has blatantly depicted the realities of the Film industry.
It could have been fascinating to depict their journey and hardship in a movie on female bouncers. However, Bhandarkar just provides a pointless love relationship that scarcely brings anything new to the narrative. With Babli Bouncer, the director seemed to have caved in and followed a particular “formula.” The narrative loses its core to remain humorous and woke. Even if Tamannaah Bhatia and the accompanying cast try to improve the dreadful storyline with their acting abilities, it is insufficient to make you care about their narrative.
Tamannaah Bhatia is a lot of fun. She gives Babli the same sincere simplicity she exudes in her life. While Tamannaah Bhatia, as Babli first, requires some attention, she comes to the forefront about fifteen minutes into the movie. We chuckle when the language delivers a much-awaited punchline. Nevertheless, the film’s treatment of gender problems is inconsistent throughout. The audio doesn’t do anything to enhance the overall ambience, either.
It wouldn’t be inaccurate to claim that this is Bhandarkar’s poorest effort in the past ten years.
