Bazaar 

Cast:  Saif Ali Khan, Radhika Apte, Rohan Mehra & Chitrangda Singh


Director: Gauravv K Chawla

What’s it about?

A small town boy from Allahabad Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra) aims to make it big in the business world like his idol Shakun Kothari (Saif Ali Khan). But in the world of corporate warfare where nothing is as simple as it seems, how far will his dream to fly high take him?

Review

“Hu chu dhandho no gando chokro,” blurts a cunning Shakun Kothari to a SEBI chief, who is hot on his trail for a decade without any headway. This and many such cheesy in lines in Gujarati are part of the overall entertainment package that Bazaar is. Saif Ali Khan doesn’t quite get the spoken language, but his body language symbolizes the conniving traits of his character with definite shades of grey.

Saif is one of the highlights of Bazaar who plays a skillfully written character of a Gujarati businessman whose morality is as questionable as the empire he built through varied means. Newbie Rohan Mehra comes a close second with his easy charm and honest appeal. He has a boy-next-door screen presence that works well for his character of an ambitious young man, who dreams first and thinks later. Among the film’s leading ladies, Radhika Apte clearly gets a meatier role while Chitrangda is once again relegated to a highly functional character that could have been played by just about anyone.

But beyond all of this, what really works for Bazaar is the pace of its screenplay. Packed with interesting plot twists, Bazaar plays out reasonably well in both halves without being a drag. However, writers Nikkhil Advani, Parveez Sheikh and Aseem Arora use easy means to achieve end results for their characters. They succeed and fail in quick succession and country’s leading stock broking firm is filled with childish characters, whose only job is to make the hero look good. At one point, Rizwan runs around in his massive office shouting crucial stock prices with a landline in his hand, with little regard for the wire and the logic.

And to make their point, most characters are either chasing their dreams or mouthing heavy filmy dialogues or doing both at the same time.

However, there is an unmistakable air of simplicity and an entertaining quality about Bazaar that keeps you invested if not completely convinced.

I am going with 3 stars.

  • Ronak Kotecha