'Bhediya' movie review: Wolf against Wall Street!

Film BhediyaDirectorAmar KaushikCast Varun Dhawan Abhishek Banerjee Kriti SanonRating 12Soon as the three blokes mdash two of them buddies third one theyrsquove just met mdash enter a wrecked Maruti 800 driving down from Itanagar airport in the openingcredit sequence the background music unexpectedly breaks into a zingy raplike number with everyone lipsyncing in the car ldquoBaaki sab theek Bas chal raha hairdquoFirstly where is Itangar you may wonder As do the two dudes from Delhi Varun Dhawan Abhishek Banerjee who like the rest of India canrsquot tell between Manipur Guwahati Meghalaya Itanagar mdash itrsquos all this nebulous thing called North East NE isnrsquot itAnd yes this picture touches upon that fact rather well blending obvious lament with a genuine lightness of touch all through mdash a tone set by the opening song followed by sad romantic even lsquoitem songsrsquo let alone selfaware joke after joke sometimes to rile up the woke But hey wait mdash the moviersquos Bhediya thatrsquos a wolf no YupAlso Read Shah Rukh Khan Alia Bhatt starrer lsquoDear Zindagirsquo clocks 6 yearsSo you can treat all the topclass comic writing Niren Bhatt well enacted executed around curious characters placed in the wondrously green hilly NE setting as a solid long runup mdash before we get to the actual delivery in the interval blockThat there is a man Dhawan who indeed turns into a wolf And thatrsquos what you paid for Everything else is whatrsquos called lsquotreatmentrsquo though equally precious if not more actuallyItrsquos essential to note then that the frickinrsquo bhediyawolf in the film looks feels real enough for you to be careful with a creaking neck mdash in case you jolt as the animal leaps before your eyes behind 3D glassesOne could have wished for more such lsquomoney shotsrsquo But we know how much money the Life of Pi cost Suffice it to know the work on visual effects here mdash designed exclusively for fullscale theatrical entertainment mdash offers just about enough bang for the buckWe of course know that the werewolf itself is an eponymous Hollywood subgenre of sorts mdash with so many movies over generationsdecades Even while we consider only the popular ones like Jack Nicholsonrsquos The Wolf 1994 or Hopkinsrsquos The Wolfman 2010 etc The usual lot otherwise I guess belong to Bmovie slatesAs per larger genre convention they involve a shapeshifter human transforming into another specie Walking through dense jungles this filmrsquos characters themselves put out a Bollywood playlist for their audiencesAlso Read Bigg Boss 16 Shiv Thakare garners appreciation for his maturityNaming lsquoicchadharirsquo naags from Naagin Nagina etc Humming lsquoJhile le jhile lersquo from desi Tarzan playing Gulzarrsquos ditty for Jungle Book lsquoChaddi pehenke phool khila hairsquo Mentioning Rahul Roy as the mantiger in Junoon 1992 the cult of Jaani Dushman both the Sanjeev Kumar 1979 and Akshay Kumar 2002 starrershellipIn all of this the makers of totally Agrade Bhediya can rightly stake claim as they have of releasing Indiarsquos first creature comedy I donrsquot remember seeing anotherWhich as a choice is a comeback nicely done for Dhawan after the embarrassingly cookiecutter Coolie No 1 2020 Although must say that rsquo90s remake shouldrsquoveideally been tested on theatrical audiences first mdash just to gauge current markets since everyonersquos convinced only spectacles work at cinemasSure Bhediya with the camera in extreme lowangles closeups even the lens going upside down on occasion is visual enough to qualify for a lsquospectaclersquo mdash you even wear one for the screen Also whatrsquos a movie if not actors transforming into unlikely beingsUnsure exactly what makes our mainman prance and pounce around as a bhediya on some nights and not on some others though Itrsquod be dumb to establish irrefutable logic Also hard if not impossible to conclude a pic like thisThat said forget the starturnedwolf Even the ensemble cast looked slightly unrecognisable to me at first mdash Kriti Sanon in short hair seemed more Anne Hathaway as a Hollywood farm girl and I couldnrsquot tell the deadly Deepak Dobriyal at instant glance eitherThe best lines in the movie however belong to Abhishek Banerjee as the minion hanging around with the capitalistjerk hero whorsquos busy with work while this adorable unemployed delusional loser got nothing better to do Itrsquos the same actor character from TVFrsquos desi Seinfeldlike show Humorously Yours 2016 quite ahead of its times actuallyBetween these fellows in the film and funfunny stuff that flow throughout mdash yoursquove got a fine followup to director Amar Kaushikrsquos debut Stree 2018 stunning horrorcomedy with a great underlying theme That movie is referenced here with Rajkummar Rao showing up on screen as well But I donrsquot think audiences will care that this movie is by the same producer Dinesh Vijan and director of that sleeper hit etcIrsquoll tell you the penny that will drop The fact that once the script is fully framed within a genre the filmmakers so smartly employ all available elbow room to seamlessly comment on so many things personal and political mdash rights of natives animals onwards development vs destructionman vs nature Nope greedrsquos not good mdash this wolfrsquos against Wall Street you knowhellip Baaki sab More than theek thaak

'Bhediya' movie review: Wolf against Wall Street!

Film: Bhediya
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Abhishek Banerjee, Kriti Sanon
Rating: ***1/2

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / 'Bhediya' movie review: Wolf against Wall Street!

'Bhediya' movie review: Wolf against Wall Street!

Film: BhediyaDirector: Amar KaushikCast: Varun Dhawan, Abhishek Banerjee, Kriti SanonRating: ***1/2

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Film: Bhediya
Director: Amar Kaushik
Cast: Varun Dhawan, Abhishek Banerjee, Kriti Sanon
Rating: ***1/2