Bade Mayan Chote Miyan
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Year: 2024
Duration: 163
minutes
Music: Vishal
Mishra
Rating: 7.0
Stupid excessive cartoonish action films have
become a genre of their own. With the advances of CGI and the proliferation
of global action choreographers, the brain dead action films have become
the norm. An enormously high body count and lots of explosions are expected.
The action films of the 1980s like Commando or Cobra which may have felt
over the top back then, seem muted compared to today's action films. But
that doesn't mean you can't enjoy it. Though by the large number of 1-2 reviews
on Letterbox, it seems few enjoyed this film. But I did. With this sort of
film, you have to go with it. Don't fight it. Become Zenlike. Become one
with the film. Appreciate the astonishing absurdity of it, the corny patriotic
dialogue, the vapid attempts at wit, the complete lack of logic, the hyperbolic
action in which our heroes can walk through a hail of bullets untouched and
of course technology that is totally made up. Plot holes larger than the
sun. This film has all of that and more, but instead of being mocked and
derided, it should be saluted. You can't be this stupid unless you try.
And the good news is that it isn't just
Hollywood that has mastered the Stupid, but Bollywood too. Here we get two
of the biggest Bollywood action stars falling in love with each other like
a Buddy film should. The veteran Akshay Kumar is teamed up with newcomer,
Tiger Shroff (son of the legendary Jackie Shroff). Akshay has been a top
star since the early 90s while Tiger is fairly new on the scene but is extremely
impressive in his action and shirtless scenes. They make a cute couple in
the film and certainly spend more time flirting with each other than the
women in the film. And one of them, Manushi Chhillar, was Miss World in 2017.
Their true love of course is India. Jai Hind.
Before the opening credits even come on
the screen, there have been three action set pieces and a dance. It doesn't
slow down much from that. In the first scene, a madman attacks a military
convoy carrying a secret weapon. One so powerful that it can destroy India
in the wrong hands. Just maybe, it should have been better protected. In
the next agent Manushi is called to Shanghai where she has to fight off a
man in an iron mask who seemingly can't be killed. And finally pre-credit,
our two boys in a flashback take out an entire terrorist village in Afghanistan
to save hostages. Amusingly, the terrorists are all watching a dance number
with Amitabh Bachchan and Govinda from the 1998 film of the same title as
this.
Their new assignment is to retrieve this
super weapon which is of course being stored in a vault below Waterloo Station
in London. Huge action set piece to follow across the city. A couple more
to go. And let's not forget the Clone Army where the boys have to fight themselves
and save India from a war with Pakistan and China. Jai Hind! It was apparently
a box office disaster which perhaps shows good taste on the part of Indian
audiences, but I say, turn off your brain and float downstream. Its a big
bombastic stupid film that only exists to have fun. The action set pieces
are well done in that blow the shit out of everything way and amazingly the
budget was about $35 million. This would have cost $200 million in Hollywood
and be half as fun but just as stupid.
