Bullett Raja Review

One Line Review: A sheer smart-alec tale without any chills and thrills of a bona fide action-thriller.

Positive Points: Some real action-packed fights by Vidyut Jamwal.

Negative Points: Flat screenplay, Directionless direction, Lacklustre music, Unimpressive character performances, Mundane art direction.

Plot: The short-tempered yet kind-hearted Brahmin, Raja Mishra (Saif Ali Khan) lives in Uttar Pradesh with his family. One day, some goons chase Raja over some reason and to save himself, Raja secretly joins a marriage procession. This marriage procession happens to be the wedding of local bigwig's daughter's wedding. Within sometime, Raja befriends with Rudra Tripathi (Jimmy Shergill), who is the bride's cousin. The two turn very good friends and join some naach-gaana in the wedding by shaking legs on an item number with a stunning lady (Mahi Gill). After the dance, the lady and Raja go in the forests to have some talks and there Raja overhears a plan of some baddies with their leader Lallan Tiwary (Chunky Pandey) to assassinate Rudra and his family. Without wasting a second, Raja comes to inform Rudra's family about it and at the same time, the bullets start doing their work at the hands of goons. Raja and Rudra give tough fight, but it accidentally leads Raja to a muddy, filthy world of politics in Uttar Pradesh, as he gets arrested. After this incident, Rudra's uncle (Sharat Saxena) gets killed at the hands of the same baddies, who attacked Tripathi family. As a revenge for this, Raja turns into a dreaded gangster and Raja along with Rudra seek support of a powerful local politician Ram Shukla (Raj Babbar) in order to take revenge of uncle's death.

Apparently, the reason for the blood-filled rivalry is another major baddie Akhandvir Singh, who intends to snatch the village lands for bad reasons. For eradicating the mastermind Singh, Raja and Rudra get support from Shukla. After a chain of events, Shukla tell them to work for Saxena (Gulshan Grover), an affluent businessman, in order to rise in power. One day, the two friends fall into serious verbal disagreements with Saxena and plan to teach him a lesson. So they badly hurt him physically and in turn, Saxena plays a big bad game by killing Rudra at the hands of his right hand Sumer (Ravi Kishan). The shocking death of Rudra wakes up the real friend hidden inside Raja, who is ready to leave no stone unturned to seek the revenge of Rudra's death and then Raja turns into "Bullett Raja".

Direction And Other Technical Aspects: 'Paan Singh Tomar' fame Tigmanshu Dhulia this time incepted the very common tale belonging to his most preferred crime-thriller genre 'Bullett Raja'. The film is set in the rustic surroundings of Uttar Pradesh and speaks about how the dirty politics turns one's life upside down. Although the concept seemed fine, the way it was directed and executed bores viewers to death. The movie basically lacked the zing of Tigmanshu Dhulia films and hence, could not seem to be a gripping one by any possible way, as it appeared as an action-drama set in 1980's. A pool of predictable scenes, non-engaging script, mediocre character performances and unsuitable background score land the entire film into potboilers category. The other reason for an individual being unable to find this film as a good entertainer, can be his or her inability to relate to the characters in this movie.

Only a few dialogues or can be said as comic punches came to the rescue. The best dialogue was "Maa ne kaha tha beta kisi ka dil na todna. Toh maine dil ko chodke sab kuch toda." The other memorable one and the one that speaks tongue-in-cheek things is "Bhai mara hai harama aur badla lena hamari parampara hai. Koi corporate culture nahin hai ki agli deal mein adjust kar lenge." Apart from a few such good moments, the movie could not offer any delightful content, as it could portray nothing more than constantly blazing bullets. Also some points could not go hand in hand with the reality, like Sonakshi Sinha insisting Saif Ali Khan and Jimmy Shergill in their very first meeting to take her along with them wherever they will go, just because they saved her from a problem. The cinematography was average, as it could not capture the essence of Uttar Pradesh, Mumbai and Kolkata, the three cities where the movie is filmed in. The reason might be the ultimate focus was on all the maar-dhaad and gunplay. Editing was not up to the level and hence, was far from being the good one.

The only element that saved the flick from drowning is the power-packed special appearance by the electrifying Vidyut Jamwal, who steps in as a dashing Police inspector. Vidyut appeared as the only tough guy, who did real action sequences in the film without using much of bullets, thereby exuding machismo. The action sequences designed by Vidyut himself stole the show. The dude actually made his presence felt on the screen and makes the fight between Saif and him as spectacular as it had to be. Overall, one could not find the interesting action stuff in this flick even after the story concludes.

Performance: Saif Ali Khan appeared in his new look for this flick and attempted to re-design his action-hero image on the screen. Although Saif played his part conveniently, the typical Saif touch to the role seemed missing somewhere. Jimmy Shergill portrayed his character in a believable way, but it had the room for improvement. Raj Babbar looked well as a politician with grey shades. The ace actor Ravi Kishan played a comparatively short, but a key role in an amazing way as usual.

Once again "Dabangg" beauty Sonakshi Sinha featured as the aspiring actress, but this time without any glaze. Sonakshi proved as just a wallflower in this male-centric film and the script did not explore her potential. Vidyut Jamwal can be the one, on whom one can go ga-ga over. Vidyut played his character brilliantly well and tagged himself as a rising action samrat. The other actors like Gulshan Grover, Chunky Pandey and Sharat Saxena lent an average support.

Music: The music is composed by Sajid Ali and Wajid Ali. It failed to create the magic even among the music buffs. Only the tracks like "Tamanche Pe Disco", "Samne Hai Savera" and "Don't Touch My Body" brought some entertaining moments. The other songs were weak enough and did not seem memorable.

Final Verdict: This bullet game can't be quoted as the commercial masala entertainer, as it lacked masala as well as entertainment. If you are the worshipper of any type of action-drama, then this flick can be a one-time watch or you can watch for some striking action sequences by Vidyut Jamwal. Saif Ali Khan fans can go for it, just for the sake of your favourite star. Looking for entertainment? Stay away from this run-of-the-mill flick, as it envelops no new stuff to watch out for!