Tamanche Pe Disco is the spirit. Tigmanshu Dhulia has sure dipped a few
notches after winner films and style statements like Paan Singh Tommar and
Sahib Biwi aur Gangster. The creed of violence is crude. After having to sit
through hours and hours of Gangs of Wasseypur and the entire genre that has
made violence the celebrative theme, you begin to yawn.. After all beyond a
point even style, or just style has its limitations. Choosing a part of the cow
belt to mirror how politics in the dynamic democracy is all about shoot outs,
killings intrigues and behind the screen conspiracies is obviously the text and
theme of this seemingly long film. While credit be given to Tigmanshu for
keeping audience interest on, it is also his fault for selling violence as the
perfect feature of entertainment. Without going into the debate whether the
artist is also a citizen and thus an inheritor of social responsibility, a time
surely has come to cry halt at the huge dosages of violence churned out in the
name of cinema (realistic!) and buy some piece alongside your entertainment
ticket.
Raja Misra (Saif ) to escape from a chase joins an barat and runs into Rudra
(Jimmy Shergill). They get drawn into the vortex of clan violence. Minutes
after the new found relationship Raja realises that Lallan (Chunkey) is playing
the villain and members of the family including Chacha Purushotam (Sharat
Saxena) are in danger and thus begins the long list of shoot outs that are hand
outs in the name of entertainment. The battle between Purushotam and Mithilesh
Akandveer (Gaurav Jha) leads to bomb blasts and mass killings in the name of
family feuds.
The scene shifts to Allahabad and the politics of the mainland. Two leading
camps have Minister (Raj Babbar) and businessman (Gulshan Grover) and the Raja
Rudra team unleash a kind of violence that gets on you and you suddenly realise
you are in the midst of a place where guns and bullets are easier to get then
onions and peace. The relationship between Raja and Rudra and the escapades are
incident filled and surely cinematic and engaging but somewhere bereft of punch
that goes with the kind of cinema. With Raja-Rudra going through the ‘yeh dosti
hum nahin chodenge’ phase. A long drawn chronicle of violence leads to mindless
destruction and demands of you to keep track as to who walked in, who left the
script and what is the fatal total. Superimposed with half hearted compromise
with the box office requirement is the romantic angle between Raja and Mitali
(Sonakshi Sinha). Obviously as part of the scheme of the machinations of
contemporary politics, you have the politician link with the police. So we have
Munna (Vidyut Jamival) playing the archetype police officer efficient and
trigger happy. Also in the scheme of things is the master planner in the jail
(Vipin Sharma) and as the police officer Deepraj Rana.
Sonakshi has very little to do and is surprising that a star who is choosy
takes a role of such poor demands. Perhaps from a career view point it is nice
to have Tigmanshu in the CV. Jimmy Shergill is a case of talent abused in our
cinema. Surely his talent calls for more attention in our cinema. Unfortunately
most film makers are governed only by the success at the box office and
unfortunately here he has not been very happening. Well, Bullet Raja is surely
all about Saif. The suave image of the star is so obviously so trenched that it
is difficult to see him play the role. With a script that leaves more for the
stunt man to deliver than the Director, any actor has very little to do. He is
bound to swim in his image and that is exactly what Saif does. It is here that
Tigmanshu fails and where Vishal Bharadwaj succeeded.
For those who have a huge appetite for violence, this is good fare, but for
those (including yours sincerely) who believe we have had an over kill of
killings this is yawn and tiring.