Bombairiya movie cast: Radhika Apte, Akshay Oberoi, Amit Sial, Siddhant Kapoor, Ravi Kishan, Adil Hussain, Ajinkya Deo, Shilpa Shukla
Bombairiya movie director: Pia Sukanya
Bombairiya movie rating: Half star
When a film opens with several disparate strands all going in different directions at the same time, we expect that it will join the dots at some stage. And if it’s good, the film will expect you to meet it halfway, never spoon-feeding you, but letting out dribs of smartly executed information till the jigsaw is all done.
Bombairiya has the strands, but is bereft of that one thing all movies need: a plot. Whatever passes for one is so hare-brained, so all-over-the-place that you wonder just how this thing was cobbled together.
Radhika Apte leads this ensemble. A female actor top-lining a film should be cause for celebration. Not here, no. An altercation on a busy street and a phone snatching leads to various characters showing up: a film star (Kishan) sulking on a boat, a harried fellow (Kapoor) tracking a mysterious plastic-wrapped parcel, a nice young man (Oberoi) trying to be helpful, a ‘neta’-type (Hussain) lounging in a cell, a police commissioner (Deo) cracking the whip, a bearded character (Sial) running around with a gun, among others.
This may have started out as A One Day When Bizarre Things Happen and People Collide kind of flick. It ends up as a tiresome exercise in Who What Where When Why, with a Someone Please Tell Me Going On Here writ large on our faces. About half-way through, a character is forced to comment on the all-round confusion. It lasts all the way till the end, with a clunky explanation about the country’s witness protection program, and how it needs refurbishing.
That’s a great idea, right there. But where’s the execution? This is a bunch of actors who are all capable of making us happy, but here all you do is watch them flounder. Apte frowns and scowls. That’s been her trademark look for in her past few outings. Can someone please give a movie in which she gets to smile?
