Badmaash Company - Movie Reviews

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Rediff.com- Raja Sen

When did Badmaashi get this boring?


Perhaps, like in the one fantastic film he was great in, there really are two Shahid Kapoors. One is a decent actor, the sort of person Imtiaz Ali  can coerce into impressive restraint, and Vishal Bhardwaj can work miracles with.

The other, more frequently seen brother is a talentless hack, one of those young dancing boys who purses his lips to show emotion and wallows in his own smugness.

This film, as you might have guessed, stars the latter. Not that director Parmeet Sethi -- who will forever be known as the man Simran turned down in the biggest hit of our times -- is absolved of blame purely because there isn't a single actor in his film. (Well, there's Pawan Malhotra, sure, but there's only so much that ever-reliable performer can do on his own. Remember Delhi 6?)

Badmaash Company is an unimaginably boring film that is so amateurish it hurts. Peopled entirely by imbeciles, the film is about a bunch of swagger-happy bling-loving scamsters who come up with some mild manipulation with selling sneakers.

So smitten is the director with this plan that he shows the team in action again and again, setting up sequence after sequence first so Shahid can slowly explain his plan and then repeating the shots so they can execute that very spelled-out plan.

Meanwhile, we yawn and wait. Surely there must be more to an entire movie than a group of fools parading around in costumes and selling shoes. There is: they move on to doing the exact same thing with gloves. And we're shown it all again, oh yes. Mr Sethi, looking up the word 'montage' might be a good idea.

And it's all soaked to the gills in cliche. There's melodrama of every kind, as moron by moron develops trouble -- daddy issues, relationship insecurity, alcoholism, overriding ambition, a suddenly stubborn gambling streak -- and all of it is as obvious as it gets.

The two vivacious ladies on either side of me in the theatre today made a game out of predicting what hackneyed melodramatic lines and twists would come next: they were mostly right, and the few times they erred, their predictions were far superior to the directors.

And before you think it's a so-bad-it's-good kinda film, it's not. It's just drab and repetitive and quite persistently annoying, and thanks to every theme being stretched out over and over again, feels absolutely unending.

Shahid, as said, scowls and furrows his brow to look intense, makes puppy dog eyes while talking extra-plaintively to his folks, and raises eyebrows self-appreciatingly when he thinks he looks pretty.

Meiyang Chang of Indian Idol seems to have gotten this gig simply because of his Chinese roots, leading to some weak gags.

Vir Das plays a miraculously inconsistent character, one who starts off frivolous and armed with that Bollywood flavour of the season, a stutter, but loses that and his amorality as he turns into the calm one.

And all of these boys, these boys acting as if in a poor school play, are outdone completely by the girl, who is in a whole different league of awful.

Anushka Sharma, clad in technicolor pants and trying hard to look at ease while showing skin, is painful right from her first shot, where she overacts while chewing bubblegum. And giving her a casually sexy personality -- complete with the most wannabe vocabulary of all time, freakin' screwy stuff, yeah -- doesn't help matters.

It's hard to take this sort of film seriously, a film that lathers on the same lackluster ideas over and over again, expecting us to lap it up but actually beating us into stupor. There's not a single scene in the film that actually works, and there are a couple that just hurt: including a very poorly thought out reference to a music legend.

Nope, all they get right with Badmaash Company are the first three letters of the title.

Rediff Rating: 0.5/5

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Are the four characters of 'Badmaash Company' picked from real life?

Not many are aware that Parmeet Sethi, the actor turned director of BADMAASH COMPANY, wrote its entire script with dialogues in six days flat. Yes, you read it right: Six days only. And the four characters in the film - Karan, Bulbul, Chandu and Zing - are known to Parmeet; they're based on real-life characters.

Anushka Sharma, who has a lot of hopes pinning on BADMAASH COMPANY, feels that the film would connect big time with the youth of today, who resort to an easy route to attain name, fame and riches overnight. "That's what attracted me to the film. Honestly, I wasn't even aware that Parmeet had written the script and was supposed to direct it, since Adi [Aditya Chopra] just asked me to go through it. It was much later, when I read the script and expressed my eagerness to be a part of the film, that Adi revealed the director's identity," Anushka tells me.

Parmeet reveals that he got tired of television and was keen on pursuing film direction. "There's a little of me in each of those four characters," Parmeet says, who approached Yash Raj with his script the moment he was ready. The fact that Adi liked it and signed a 3-film deal with Parmeet, says it all.

Parmeet feels that BADMAASH COMPANY offers loads of entertainment, but narrated in a new format. "Even the choice of actors proves that I didn't want to take the predictable path," he says. What about Shahid? He's known to act 'difficult' with his directors. "That's not true at all. Not once did he interfere or throw starry tantrums. In fact, he pushed his father's film MAUSAM ahead to accommodate BADMAASH COMPANY. That says it all," Parmeet refutes the rumour.

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Badmaash Company Movie Still

"Ayaashi " - (Longer Version) - BADMAASH COMPANY

Exclusive Review -Rocket Singh : Salesman of the Year

Who is Shimit Amin? The one who directed Ab Tak Chhappan or the one who directed Chak De! India and Rocket Singh. After watching Rocket Singh, I began to think is Ab Tak Chhappan more of a RGV Factory product than a Shimit Amin film? Is Chak De! India and Rocket Singh more of Jaideep Sahni films than a Shimit Amin film? Does Shimit Amin adapt himself to the company he works for? When he was associated with RGV factory he gave Ab Tak Chhappan that always looked like a factory product. When he moves out and teams up with Jaideep Sahni, his style of making film completely changes. I am not blaming Shimit Amin for making himself look adapted to the company he works for, I am just trying to figure out how much is Shimit Amin, the director, involved in making films? I wouldn’t call Chak De! India or Rocket Singh as regular Yash Raj films but yes, they have Jaideep Sahni written all over them. And I appreciate Shimit Amin not taking the credit for the film alone. Instead he has made sure that Rocket Singh is as much his film as it is of Jaideep Sahni. The first stills that came out of Rocket Singh had Ranbir Kapoor, Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni in it which is quite surprising. That itself showed Shimit Amin respects Jaideep Sahni for his contribution to the film. I haven’t seen such immense respect given to a writer before in Indian Cinema. Gulzar and Anurag Kashyap have got recognition for their writing too but then they probably got it once they entered the field of direction. Jaideep Sahni on the other hand is getting himself recognized only because of his writing skills and capabilities. We never heard the name of Shimit Amin alone whenever there was talk about Rocket Singh. We always heard Rocket Singh is from the makers of Chak De! India or Jaideep-Shimit duo are back.

Rocket Singh, one of the awaited films of the year, especially because of the fact that it is from the makers of Chak De! India, is about a fresh graduate Harpreet Singh played by Ranbir Kapoor, who trying to adapt himself to the job of a salesman. It isn’t a stylish film that shows the extraordinary capabilities of Harpreet Singh as a salesman, nor does it glorify the job of a salesman. Harpreet Singh is very much like a common man working in an office, and about a man whose ethics do not synchronize with the company he is working for.

The story of the film can well be compared to the silent era comedies especially the ones of Charlie Chaplin where he played the honest person forced to take the wrong way due to the situations in his life. And Rocket Singh references it very well with a transition effect which was used in the silent films. We can see the reference in the image below.



The script written by Jaideep Sahni is really the true winner of the film. The subtleness and the realism he gives to his characters and situations should be applauded. The atmosphere shown in Rocket Singh is very much real and how well Jaideep – Shimit have shown the atmosphere in different places (HOME, PARTY, OFFICE) and distinguished them is commendable. The best part of Jaideep’s writing is he is very honest to his work and no doubt in the fact that Shimit Amin does complete justice to Jaideep’s script. Through his work, one can see the effort he makes to make a scene look very much real. The characters in the film do small things that work like wonders in giving the film look real. Like right at the start, we see Ranbir Kapoor winking to his God and then apologizing right after that and then Harpreet Singh (Ranbir Kapoor) giving body massage to his father. Jaideep – Shimit establish the character so well in the film through their mannerism and dialogs they speak. Characters in the film speaking regional lines like “Nakko Re” for “No”, Harpreet Singh’s(Ranbir Kapoor) father calling him ‘Sardar’ in a informal way, speaking regional language while at home, etc makes the film look real.

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REVIEWS - Rocket Singh - Salesman of the Year (Taran Adarsh, Raja Sen, Rajeev Masand, Nikhat Kazmi, Khalid Mohd., Baradwaj Rangan)

Taran Adarsh -


Some films absorb you instantly, from the very outset. But it takes time to get into the world of a salesman who thinks from his heart.

Come to think of it, ROCKET SINGH - SALESMAN OF THE YEAR is about a simpleton, but the story of his struggle and accomplishment isn't the kind that would charge you or make you charter a similar path in life. Also, the story of an underdog who comes up the hard way should make you feel euphoric in the end, right? But ROCKET SINGH - SALESMAN OF THE YEAR doesn't.

Frankly, ROCKET SINGH - SALESMAN OF THE YEAR is more of a documentary on the life of a salesman. It's a decent film, no two opinions on that, but the question is, [a] Is the story powerful enough to excite you and [b] Does it grab your attention in entirety? Sadly, the answer to both the questions is in the negative.

There's another problem and this is strictly from the point of those seeking entertainment. A Yash Raj film with Ranbir Kapoor [after AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI] essaying the title role, coupled with fun-filled promos ['Pocket Mein Rocket Hain'] might make you assume that it would offer loads of entertainment, but this has barely a song or two, as good as no romance and hardly any comic moments - the recipe for most Hindi movies.

In a nutshell, ROCKET SINGH - SALESMAN OF THE YEAR is a dull and dry experience.

Harpreet Singh Bedi [Ranbir Kapoor] has just graduated and his marks are, well, let's say a little embarrassing. But marks never stopped him from dreaming of an exciting and adventurous career, and they never will.

He takes a deep, positive breath and dives into the world of sales, rumoured to be an ultra cool career. It's everything he dreamt of, with its smooth dressing, smoother talking men and women who can sell ice to an Eskimo, dreams to an insomniac and a lifetime mobile connection to a dying man. But soon, his idea of success begins clashing with the strange ways of these 'professionals' and 'bosses' he looked up to.

ROCKET SINGH - SALESMAN OF THE YEAR may be based on a simpleton's life, but the viewer gets a hang of things only towards the second hour. The entire first hour is devoted to establishing the characters and also getting used to the way sales persons go about their business.

There's not much excitement in the first hour, barring a few attention-grabbing scenes that pop up intermittently. The story just flows, with the viewer not reacting much to the proceedings. But things change for better towards the post-interval portions when the protagonist and his colleagues' lives get complicated.

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Rocket Singh B.O Report - Opens to shockingly low response

B.O. update: 'Rocket Singh' opens to shockingly low response - Bollywood Hungama

Everyone was expecting ROCKET SINGH - SALESMAN OF THE YEAR to start with a bang, given the fact that Ranbir Kapoor's last two films, WAKE UP SID and AJAB PREM KI GHAZAB KAHANI, had fetched a flying start. Also, the fact that Aditya Chopra, Shimit Amin and Jaideep Sahni had teamed up with Ranbir, only raised the expectations from the film. But the poor start of ROCKET SINGH sent shock waves within the industry. The film had a 20% to 40% start at certain plexes and at places, 10% to 15% start.

Read more from HERE

Rocket Singh Has Dull Start Paa Decent First Week - Box Office India

Rocket Singh - Salesman Of The Year had a dull start as it opened to around 30-40% and evening shows did not show major improvement at around 50-55%. Single screens had a low response. The film has fairly low costs so recovery is not a major problem but it remains to be seen what sort of theatrical business it can do. Delhi/NCR showed best improvement yesterday evening but not the sort of jump that makes a big difference.

For updated reports on Paa, De Dana Dana, and Radio click HERE

Rocket Singh Website.

Read the story, See the stills, Listen to the music, Watch the promos on ROCKET SINGH WEBSITE

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Rocket Singh Vs 3 Idiots: Ghajini vs Rab ne reloaded?

Last year, a Yash Raj film [Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi] and an Aamir Khan starrer [Ghajini] were released in the same month - on 12th December and 25th December, respectively. Now Yash Raj is bringing its new release, Rocket Singh- Salesman Of The Year on the same day... well almost [11th December], while Aamir too is bringing 3 Idiots on 25th December.

Source here

Well, lets hope that these 2 flicks change the BO status of BW this year the way Rab ne and Ghajini did last year.

Kapoors, Johars and Khans made B-town

Trade analyst Taran Adarsh lists the top five production houses in Bollywood thus, in terms of their standing in the trade circuits and financial standings: UTV (owned by Ronnie Screwvala, Deven Khote and Zareena Mehta), Yash Chopra's Yash Raj Films (YRF), Karan Johar's Dharma Productions, Rakesh Roshan's Filmkraft Productions and Sanjay Leela Bhansali Films.

"Over the past few years, it has been more or less a toss-up between these five production houses in terms of number of movies released, number of hits registered, the annual turnover and popularity overseas. Although Subhash Ghai's banner hasn't recorded many hits in the recent past, the company's market value is still on a par with the five biggies," Adarsh says.
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