Babumoshai Bandookbaaz

About the film

Babumoshai Bandookbaaz (transl. The gunman Babu) is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language action thriller film directed by Kushan Nandy and produced by Kiran Shyam Shroff and Ashmith Kunder. The film features Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Bidita Bag in the lead roles. The movie did average business at the box office.

Plot

In Uttar Pradesh's political landscape, dominated by rivals Dubey and Jiji, Babu Bihari works as a hitman for both. He charges ₹20,000 per hit, giving ₹5,000 to the constable who arranges the job. Known for his ferocity and clean, straightforward kills, Babu lives simply in a remote shanty. Jiji assigns Babu to kill a local muscleman. While surveying his target, Babu meets Phulwa, a cobbler. Attracted by her beauty and strong personality, he attempts to court her but is rejected. Babu proceeds with the hit, which Phulwa witnesses.

Phulwa doesn't identify Babu to the police. He confronts her; she stabs him in self-defense. Babu learns the victim and his brothers had raped Phulwa. She promises Babu anything if he kills the remaining brothers, which he does. Upon return, Jiji is furious as Babu unknowingly ruined her political alliance plans with the brothers, souring their relationship.

Babu and Phulwa have sex. Dubey hires Babu to kill Jiji's three men. Babu informs Jiji, challenging her to protect them. During the first attempt, another hitman with the same contract, Banke (Babu's admirer), interferes. They decide to compete: whoever kills more of the three targets wins; the loser quits. Babu kills one, Banke the second. While injured, Babu is cared for by Phulwa. Babu tests Phulwa and Banke by offering them a night together, which they refuse. Babu and Banke collaborate to kill the third target, Triloki. After succeeding, they celebrate. Banke reveals there was a fourth target and shoots Babu, who falls into a passing train.

Production

Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Babu plays the role of a sharp shooter for which he took special lessons in handling guns and action. Prague based cinematographer Vishal Vittal was signed in for the film and added an international look to the rustic landscape of Uttar Pradesh while the crisp dialogues of Ghalib Asad Bhopali (son of famous lyricist Asad Bhopali) adds humour and spark to the desi flavour and dialect. A special dialect coach was engaged at the shoot to capture the inherent flavour. Detailed research was done for costumes and sets to give an authentic look. All the songs were choreographed by Jeet Singh.

Principal photography of the film's first schedule began in, June 2016, in Uttar Pradesh. The first schedule was completed in July 2016. The film shooting was wrapped up in January 2017 and is due to release on 25 June 2017. The film is made in only 5 crore Indian rupees including print and advertisement.

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was released on 16 August 2017.

Release

The film was released in India on 25 August 2017 in 1,200 cinemas.

Critical response

As of June 2020, Babumoshai Bandookbaaz holds a 44% approval rating, on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on nine reviews with an average rating of 4.5 out of 10. Rajeev Masand of News18 gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said that, "It's a guilty pleasure at best, provocative and titillating. But it's also overlong and derivative, and gives one of our finest actors little room to do much more than repeat himself." Rohit Vats of Hindustan Times gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said that, "Babumoshai Bandookbaaz appears superficial because it fails to explore characters and their idiosyncrasies. It's a film pretending to be a stylishly raw gangster saga originated in the interiors of the Hindi heartland, but in reality, it's nothing more than another attempt to look at the crime prone lower strata of society; through a rose tinted glass." Meena Iyer of The Times of India gave the film a rating of 3 out of 5 saying that, "The screenplay could have definitely been tighter. Yet Kushan Nandy gives you a film that you find yourself compulsively watching." Namrata Joshi of The Hindu praised the performances of Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Jatin Gandhi and Bhagwan Tiwari and concluded her review saying that the film is, "Yet another revenge drama set in UP badlands that lacks cohesion despite some strong performances." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the film a …

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