Bhagam Bhag

About the film

Bhagam Bhag (transl. Mad rush) is a 2006 Indian Hindi-language comedy thriller film directed by Priyadarshan and written by Neeraj Vora. It was produced by Sunil Shetty and Dhilin Mehta. The film stars Akshay Kumar, Govinda and Paresh Rawal as the three leads alongside Lara Dutta, Rajpal Yadav, Jackie Shroff, Arbaaz Khan, Shakti Kapoor, Manoj Joshi, Razak Khan and Asrani. The film tells the story of a theatre group which travels to London for a show and need a heroine to complete their play, only to be entangled in a murder mystery they did not commit, as well as mistakenly becoming the enemies of a drug cartel and a street gang, in the process.

The film adapted certain subplots of the Malayalam film Mannar Mathai Speaking which itself was based on the 1958 film Vertigo. The film was remade in Telugu as Brahmanandam Drama Company (2008).

Plot

Champak Chaturvedi runs a theatrical troupe in India. His two men, Bunty and Babla, are assigned to either play the role of their play's hero, or the villain. Both men end up squabbling with each other, as both want the hero's part. Champak finds out that Bunty has harassed the play's heroine, Anjali, and punishes him. The group gets a contract to stage 30 plays in Britain by producer Ravindra Taneja; however, on the day of the departure, Anjali opts out, leaving Champak no alternative but to travel without a heroine, hoping to recruit one while in Britain. Upon arrival in London, Champak declares that whoever brings him a heroine will be given the role of the main hero.

Babla sets about to find a suitable "heroine" from the Indian population. On the advice of Gullu, a cab driver who misinterprets the request, he goes to a garden where he is followed by Bunty, and the two agree to take the turns in the role of the hero. While there, Bunty and Babla have their suitcase accidentally switched by two men with one containing "heroin", and as a result, both men end up being considered suspects by the local police, whose commissioner is J. D. Mehra. The two men who switched the suitcase are revealed to be working under Manubhai Gandhi, a builder and drug smuggler who is trying to sell drugs to his buyer, dreaded gangster Sher Khan. He and his men immediately suspect the trio to be secret police after hearing from Sher Khan that his men had been arrested by the police, and comedy ensues whenever Gandhi and his men bump into them. Gullu takes Bunty to two goons, Guru and Hakka, who know a woman who lives in Germany, but they insist to drive there with the two along with all of their men. Not wanting to go along with this condition, the two trick all the goons into exiting the car while they escape, though Guru is still inside the car.

Bunty eventually recruits a woman named "Munni" who suffers from suicidal tendencies, after she attempts to commit suicide in front of their car, with Guru falling out and breaking his leg in the process. Guru and his men find the troupe and chase Bunty to get their revenge, but Bunty escapes, and Hakka accidentally breaks Guru's other leg instead. Munni is accepted as the heroine of the play, and through the course of time, Bunty falls in love with "Munni", but before he can propose to her, she suffers a car accident and loses her memory, claiming to be Nisha, and calling for her husband. Nisha's husband, Vikram Chauhan, soon arrives, thanks everyone, and takes his wife back home to Liverpool. A few days later, an initially heartbroken Bunty receives a phone call from a frantic Nisha, who tells him to come over immediately. He, along with Champak and Babla, arrive there to find her body in flames.

Production

Shooting took place in Oxford, United Kingdom in July–August 2006, filming at several University of Oxford landmarks. The film borrows core plot from the Malayalam film Mannar Mathai Speaking with certain comedy sub-plot borrowed from Nadodikattu..The plot twist in the climax was borrowed from the 1999 Marathi thriller Bindhaast which Priyadarshan had earlier remade in Tamil as Snegithiye and Malayalam as Raakilipattu.

Soundtrack

Note: the Soundtrack also contains "Aa Khushi Se Khud Kushi Kar Le", which is the Solo Version Sung by Sunidhi Chauhan, which was not used in the movie, it was remade later with Shaan and included in the 2007 film "Darling".

The background music for "Afreen" samples "Heaven on Their Minds" from the Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical, Jesus Christ Superstar. The music for "Signal" samples "Signal for Lara" by Super Blue.

Release

The film was worldwide released on 22 December 2006.

Reception

The Times of India gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and stated, "The actors try hard, but the script and the dialogues let them down. Even the situations aren't funny enough, except for a few. Case in point, watch Paresh trying to chew a grenade and Govinda asking for a bite too. Funny!" Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and stated, "Bhagam Bhag will be loved for its comedy in the first hour, but the whodunit in the second hour tapers the impact."

Gullu Singh of Rediff.com gave the film 2 out of 5 stars and stated, "The real hero of the film is Kumar. He outshines everyone and has some of the best dialogues in the film. He is a treat to watch." Indu Mirani of DNA India gave the film 0.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "Ever since Priyadarshan made Hera Pheri in 2000, he has been continually repeating the formula. When he doesn't do so, as with Kyon Ki (2005), he fails miserably."

Key details