Banjo Review

One Line Review: Only if the film ‘Banjo’ would have stuck to the title it had promised, it would have been a mass entertainer!

Positive Points: Execution of chawl culture and city’s larger than life Ganpati festival gets ‘Banjo’ a complete “Mumbaiyya” feel. Also a special mention to song “Udaan Chho” that made our hero and heroine romance sweeping the filthy streets. I mean gone are the days when Bollywood had to travel all the way to Switzerland to just film a romantic song.

Negative Points: Confusing plot that gets deviated, within few minutes of the start. Failure of veteran filmmaker Ravi Jadhav to recognise it.

Plot: Local extortionist Taraat Bhai (Riteish Deshmukh) works for a corporator to earn his living. Though, his passion lies in playing a musical instrument banjo. He runs a small time orchestra band with his friends and mainly performs during Ganpati festival. One such performance gets them recognised by Mickey (Luke Kenny), who records his song and sends it to the New York based DJ Chris (Nargis Fakhri).

This banjo played song impresses Chris and she decides to hire Taraat and his band for her next singles. She flies to India in search of their unanimous talent. After discovering their true potential, she takes it upon herself to get them an international acclamation through a music competition.

The journey Mumbai’s slum based band is not that smooth. They meet several hurdles in the form of rival band, mafias and top notch studio manager. Will they successfully overcome them? Will the world discover these raw talents? Will they get the respect they deserve? Is what lies ahead.

Direction and Other Technical Aspects: Considering ‘Banjo’ the product of renowned filmmaker Ravi Jadhav, is very disappointing. He has given the Marathi cinema, marvels like ‘Natrang’ and ‘Balak Palak’. There are loop holes in his co-written script of ‘Banjo’, which is further exploited by his faulty direction. Editing is not up to the point with overstretched scenes. Cinematography earns the average score for getting onscreen the chawls and masses of Mumbai (which is again quite limited).

Performances: Riteish Deshmukh as Taraat Bhai appears good in the frame. Right from his shabby slum driven look to carrying the charisma of a rockstar, he has done justice to his role. Still the Marathi film viewers are bound to find his performance similar to ‘Lai Bhari’.

Nargis Fakhri adds another name in the list of her flop roles. Though she looked good as NY based Chris, her character also demanded her to feel the music and emote it through her expressions. Her efforts appeared as false attempt on screen.

Luke Kenny has a limited screen presence, in which he performs well.

Dharmesh Yelande has a good hold on dialogue delivery. His overall efforts in living the character Grease, gets him noted in the film.

Music: ‘Banjo’ having a musical theme at the core, chartbusting tracks were expected from music composer Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravjiani. So here it has scored average, but not an EXCELLENT!

Final Verdict: ‘Banjo’ lost its essence to the confusing plot revolving around rival band, land mafias and corrupt entertainment industry. It’s a one-time watch.