Review: 'Bumboo' lacks lucidity

Cast: Kavin Dave, Sharat Saxena, Sumit Kaul, Mandy Takhar, Sanjay Mishra

Director: Jagdish Rajpurohit

No one knows the importance of unlearning things more than a director with a theatre background. The audience easily figures it out the moment a 'narrator' appears on the screen - an almost extinct art in Bollywood.

$Review: \'Bumboo\' lacks lucidity$

No one knows the importance of unlearning things more than a director with a theatre background.

Last time it was Vivek Oberoi in 'Deewane Huye Pagal' who had donned the role of a narrator but the director Jagdish Rajpurohit's theatre background provoked him to keep one in his film too. The theme of the film is quite simple.

It says life will screw you so keep smiling.

The basic storyline has three branches. First branch deals with a down-on-luck photographer Suresh Sudhakar aka SuSu (Kavin Dave) and his wife Pinky (Mandy Takhar). Frustrated with her marriage, Pinky goes to a psychiatrist Dr D'Souza (Sumit Kaul) who convinces her to leave Suresh. D'Souza has a serious motive guiding his advice. He wants to marry Pinky himself.

Second branch shows an international hitman Mangal Singh (Sharat Saxena) who has been given the task to eliminate a scamster Manu Gupta (Sudhir Pandey). The third sub-story revolves around Manu Gupta and his absurd activities. Who is the narrator then?

Well, it's a waiter Vincent (Sanjay Mishra).

Here comes the first flaw of the script.

The waiter doesn't have the access to the story of Manu Gupta but he acts as a narrator. Ideally he should know all the characters.

Circumstances bring heavily depressed SuSu and Mangal Singh to the same hotel where Mangal Singh has to conceal his real identity while SuSu is hell bent on taking his help in coming out of depression.

Pinky, Dr. D'Souza and the police also land up in the same hotel in due course of time. Now, the hitman is waiting for Manu Gupta and the others are determined to make him a good soul at any cost. The narrative strategy follows a non-linear path where the storyteller has taken help of parallel cutting to take the story forward.

The idea of shooting three stories separately and bringing them to a common conclusion doesn't work for very simple reasons.

First reason: The acting is generally appalling. Kavin Dave looks funny but that's all about him. His dialogue delivery needs a lot of fine tuning. Kavin's movements look so methodical that at times you can predict where he will stop.

Presenting Sharat Saxena as a soft hearted killer is a nice idea but comedy doesn't seem to be his forte. He appears bored throughout the film but black clothes suit him.

Sumit Kaul's characterisation is very confused. He is neither funny nor vicious.

Mandy is the weakest link and it's the item number which makes her noticeable.

Direction is influenced by Rajpurohit's theatre background. Sometimes actors take stretched movements in close up shots. Conversation between actors is another problem. Either they are asked to speak loudly or they just don't realise the jarring effect it creates. Too much dialogue leaves the audience confused.

The editor has done some glaring mistakes. The technique has failed to hide continuity jumps in hotel room scenes. The cinematography is average. It seems that the director has deliberately left the scenic beauty of Goa out of the frame.

But the film has some good comic moments too. The hotel room sequences among Kavin, Sanjay Mishra and Sharat Saxena generate laughter. An emotional scene between Mandy and Kavin is also worth watching but such moments are rare.

Constraints of independent filmmaking are visible throughout the film. The problem of shooting the entire film within limited locations mars the story.

Lack of punches in script punctures the chances of this comedy.

The good thing about 'Bumboo' is its climax. You can certainly laugh towards the end. And yes, Mika Singh's song during the credits is worth dancing.

Message of the film fails to reach the spectator because Sanjay Mishra gives a really long 'speech' before coming to the crux of the matter.

'Bumboo' is a film made with good intentions but somehow the makers couldn't transform the original idea onto the celluloid.

You can always watch 'Bumboo' to support the storytellers who dare to go against the established market norms.

Not more than 1.5 out of 5.