Baadshaho review: Here’s how Ajay Devgn’s Entertainer FAILED!

Movie: Baadshaho

Cast: Ajay Devgn, Ileana D’Cruz, Vidyut Jammwal, Emraan Hashmi, Sanjay Mishra, Sharad Kelkar

Director: Milan Luthria

Producer: T-Series

Rating: 3/5 Stars

Baadshaho transports us to the turbulent times of 1975 when the situation all over the country was tense. The film tells the tale of a fictional heist conducted upon the orders of a queen who has been suddenly handed over an empire and whose fortune has been taken away from the corrupt government officials who are behind controlling everything, even the sources of income.

In these tense times, Maharani Gitanjali (Ileana D’Cruz) trusts no one else other than her family bodyguard Bhavani Singh (Ajay Devgn), who assembles a team of a womanizer Dalia (Emraan Hashmi) a wise crack lock picker (Sanjay Mishra) and an old aide of Gitanjali (played by Esha Gupta).

This power-packed team, who soon begin to call themselves Baadshahos (Which translates to the word Emperor) set out on a journey to recover the queens’ stolen fortune. Understanding the kind of wealth they are appointed to recover, intentions change, love tracks begin to cook up and gives way to some stellar (and some childish) action sequences, a major twist in tale and LOT of intervention from the local police force headed by Seher Singh (Vidyut Jammwal), who has intentions of his own.

The film promised a full-fledged masala entertainer with powerful one-liners and analogies, which it delivers without fail. The film has some really great and understandable action sequences, which are pulled off beautifully by a terrific Ajay Devgn’s half cooked character and, surprisingly, Bollywood’s super-ninja Jammwal is not even a part of!

In fact, he only gets to show the kind of action he is capable of in just one chase sequence. Else, all he is doing is smoking some REALLY green weed, trying to act calculative, giving us major dressing goals and some REALLY steamy kissing scenes.  Esha Gupta, on the other hand, had the perfect chances to hit the iron when it’s hot and make herself known but failed too.

We hoped for Ileana D’Cruz to have a prominent role, but were left disappointed. There’s hardly so much that a talented actress like her gets to do in the flick. Not giving women prominent parts in this film is what made us REALLY angry at the writers of Baadshaho.

On the other hand, the stars who shine really bright in this heist drama were Emraan’s Dalia, a witty charming boy from the streets of Rajasthan who keeps shifting from one brothel to another, as he sees no other life beyond that. Sanjay Mishra, on the other hand, is ALWAYS a treat to watch and delivers the best scenes of the film. A loud shout out goes to Sharad Kelkar, who had me disappointed in Irada but had surely made up for it in Baadshaho with his acting chops. His screen presence is undeniably prominent in the last quarter of the film and luckily he had a character who wasn’t easily discarded.

Overall, the one-liners and action sequences stay on point and will get the masses enough to whistle hard for. However, it still isn’t enough for us to overlook the severe lack of logic and common sense in certain portions. Will the film makers earn their money back? Only time will tell