Bol Bachchan

About the film

Bol Bachchan is a 2012 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Rohit Shetty and produced by Ajay Devgn and Dhillin Mehta under Ajay Devgn FFilms and Shree Ashtavinayak Cine Vision respectively, with Fox Star Studios serving as distributor and presenter. Based on a script by writers Yunus Sajwal and Farhad-Sajid, it stars Ajay Devgn, Abhishek Bachchan, Asin, Prachi Desai, Krushna Abhishek, Neeraj Vora and Archana Puran Singh. It is loosely based on the 1979 film Gol Maal, which itself is a remake of the 1961 Bengali film Kanamachhi. It marks Bachchan's and Devgn's fourth collaboration after LOC: Kargil, Zameen and Yuva.

Himesh Reshammiya composed the film's soundtrack with Ajay–Atul as guest composers on a dance number, with Amar Mohile composing the score.

Plot

Abbas Ali lives in Delhi with his sister Sania. He loses a case against their relatives allegedly for owning their father's home illegally. Then he beats the lawyer in the government area making his way to jail. After being informed by Sania, Shastri, a family friend bails him and he loses his job as taxi driver as the owner says that he has directly come from jail. Then Shastri, convinces them to move to Ranakpur, where he promises to get Abbas a job at his boss Prithviraj Raghuvanshi's place. They arrive at Ranakpur and meet Shastri's son Ravi and his friends, who run a drama company.

While saving a child from drowning, Abbas breaks into a disputed temple, prompting Prithviraj's estranged cousin Vikrant to get involved. Prithviraj arrives at the scene, and Ravi tells him that Abbas' name is Abhishek Bachchan, to avoid any religious tensions due to a Muslim breaking a temple's lock. Prithviraj hires Abhishek Bachchan (Abbas) as a supervisor, and is revealed to be an eccentric and kindhearted man, who hates liars and punishes them severely. Sometime later, he spots Abbas celebrating Eid and confronts him. Abbas and the others lie that the man he saw was actually Abhishek's twin brother 'Abbas', an effeminate man and Kathak dancer. Abbas also lies about having a mother, and recruits a dancer Zohra to play the part, leading to hilarious situations as he tries to conceal his lies.

Prithviraj hires the twin 'Abbas' to teach Kathak to his sister Radhika. Radhika finds out Abbas' truth, but promises to keep it secret. Prithviraj's sidekick Maakhan begins suspecting Abbas when he watches Gol Maal, as the film's plot has many similarities with Abbas' drama, and tells Prithviraj. However, Abbas narrowly escapes getting exposed.

Production

The film was originally expected for a Diwali 2011 release, though was postponed to 2012. On Dussehra 2011, director Rohit Shetty who previously directed the comedy flick, Golmaal 3 (2010), did first give actor Ajay Devgn an offer for Golmaal 4, but Devgn claimed "Golmaal 4 will happen next to next year. It's necessary to have two years gap between the two Golmaal films. It's not good if it comes every year." After the announcement, it was added that Bol Bachchan will be made before Golmaal 4. In January 2011, it was revealed that actress Asin was roped in for the first female lead. Earlier, actress Genelia D'Souza was signed to play the second female lead, but due to her differences with the makers, she opted out of the project and hence the role was offered to Prachi Desai.

In Comedy Circus, Krushna Abhishek did a performance of Rohit Shetty never giving him a film role to do but having promised him in earlier seasons of the show. Rohit was so impressed by the performance that he decided to give Krushna a role in Bol Bachchan. Shetty also added co-host Archana Puran Singh from the same show to the film cast. It was revealed in the 300th episode special of Comedy Circus, where Rohit Shetty was a guest judge, that Paresh Ganatra was among the cast. The film has been shot at various locations, including Rohit Shetty's seemingly favourite Panchgani and Chomu Palace, among other locations.

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by Himesh Reshammiya, while the lyrics were penned by Sajid-Farhad, Shabbir Ahmed, Swanand Kirkire and Sameer. The album was released on 8 June 2012 and included four original soundtracks along with four remix versions of the tracks. Three songs were composed by Reshammiya, of which two were featured in the film and one was listed only in the album. One song, "Nach Le Nach Le", composed by Ajay–Atul was also included in the album. Among the songs, "Jab Se Dekhi Hai" and "Nach Le Nach Le" became moderately popular.

Release

Bol Bachchan was released on 6 July 2012 in 2575 screens in India. Upon release, the film received mixed critical response, but strong box office collections by the end of its first weekend. On the review aggregator website Top10Bollywood, the film scored 2.31, based on 34 reviews.

Reception

On the positive side, Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said, "On the whole, Bol Bachchan is a dhamaal entertainer that has the Rohit Shetty stamp all over it. A film that pays homage to the cinema of the 1970s and 1980s, especially the ones made by Manmohan Desai. Big stars, big visuals, big entertainment, Bol Bachchan has it all." Devesh Sharma of Filmfare also awarded the film 4 out of 5 stars and commented, "How we wish director Rohit Shetty had kept aside his passion of blowing up vehicles wholescale just this once. The exaggerated action scenes eat into the narrative and jar the pace. Would this film be a crowd pleaser– well yes. It's a good leave-your-brains-behind product that Shetty is famous for. There are flashes that suggest he could have gone beyond and made a more polished film but the lure of making a blockbuster proved too much, I guess. The masses would be happy but the same can't be said for the soul of Hrishikesh Mukherjee." Srijana Mitra Das of Times of India gave the film 3.5 out of 5 stars and stated, "Rohit Shetty's latest movie has a constant up-and-down aspect to it, one sequence making you shriek in your seat with laughter, another sending your mind wandering off to the mundane. But at the very heart of things Shetty's madly in love with the movies and BB is his homage to that all-time classic, Golmaal." Mrigank Dhani…

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