Bichoo Ka Khel: Some more mayhem and maha-mari in the land of bakchodi and maara-mari. The small-town formula which started on the big-screen with Anand Rai’s Tanu Weds Manu then went in Barelli Ki Barfi. That formula has now stagnated into a bomb ka gola exploding erratically in and around the backwater of Uttar Pradesh.Ganga maiyya ki Jai ho!
This one looks like a less selfimportant variation on Mirzapur.Indeed the USP of Bicchoo Ka Khel is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Otherwise it’s the same bucolic characters speaking in the same drawl with multiple mader..ds thrown in for crude measure. Even the lead is the same. And the only way I can tell Divyendu apart in this serial from Mirzapur is his name. Munna Bhaiyya is now Akhil Bhaiyya and he loves his Baapu like a a pal. They piss and they pee(drink) together like two teenagers just discovering a life beyond masturbation.
I liked the cheesy camaraderie between Divyendu Sharma and his screen dad Mukul Chadda. While Daddy has his little fun on the side , Beta stands guard outside…If you think that’s cringy,then well..you are in the wrong place. The mofussil mayhem and the tawdry titillation of the cow belt is by now a streaming reality . Deal with it.
Sadly the father-son locker-room bonding ends all too soon and Divyendu’s Akhil Bhaiyya goes on a revenge rampage that involves seedy politicians , sexually active women and corrupt cops , all of whom share a common affinity to foul language and high-octane pulp drama.
It’s sad to see this series enthusiastically recreating the Mirzapur flavor when it could have been a lot more than just a cut-and-paste job. Nonetheless Divyendu is an actor who refuses to be daunted by repetition. He works towards making Akhil Bhaiyya far more amusing and far less intimidating than Munna Bhaiyya.But seriously, it’s time for an image-change for Divyendu and the series on desi spaghetti westerns with the body count being matched by the bawdy backchat.
Anamika: Adultery is no laughing matter. But if it goes into the hands of Hera Pheri director Priyadarshan , it could become a source of unintended hilarity.Providentially Priyan controls the urge to invoke mirth out of a potentially tragic story.Hopping gingerly into a neglected sexually unfulfilled housewife’s wild passionate affair with a young handsome stranger is familiar terrain in Indian cinema(Satyajit Ray’s Charulata being the classic rendition of this theme) but not an easy route to take for any filmmaker.
While dealing with the wife’s unfaithfulness the narrative is overly faithful to all the clichés of adultery . Harsh Chaya’s workaholic husband’s character is done in such broad strokes that he appears a caricature of an uncaring husband.Pooja Kumar as the torn wife gives an over-stressed theatrical performance. Every emotional response is recorded on her face in italics.Aditya Seal as the handsome stranger who sweeps the housewife off her feet struggles to be convincing against all odds. It’s losing battle. The chemistry with his co-star is zero and their big love-making scene is devoid of any noticeable passion.However Seal is an actor with the potential to shine even in a situation less than divine. He makes a tsrong impact as a dark sinister stranger with a past who has a blast. Pun intended.
How they meet is an amusing courtship game involving a lost wallet , a ring and a debt that seems to have written by someone who believes anxiety can be funny if put in the right hands. We can see the big revelation at the end coming at us from miles away in this short film
