Review: Ranbir Kapoor’s Besharam

Movie: Besharam

Starring: Ranbir Kapoor, Neetu Kapoor, Rishi Kapoor and Pallavi Sharda

Director: Abhinav Kashyap

Star: 2/5

There’s a line in the bawdy comedy Besharam that goes: “I don’t have a heart, I have guts”. Babli, played by Ranbir Kapoor, makes this grand declaration, puffing with pride. It holds true for the entire film. I don’t mean that in a nice way.

What was Ranbir Kapoor, Bollywood’s man-of-the-moment, thinking when he signed on Besharam? And what was his actor parents’ (Rishi and Neetu Kapoor) excuse for making such an unwise career move?

While we were eager to see the Kapoor clan unite on the silver screen for the first time, we realised that some relationships shouldn’t be milked beyond a point.

Directed by Abhinav Kashyap, this comedy is an assault on our senses. The story is as old as the hills. The hero is a car thief who steals to feed kids in an orphanage. He’s noble in that department but besharam (shameless) when it comes to other facets of his life. He stuffs his pants with socks (don’t get me started on that), woos a girl above his station in a manner that would be deemed aggressive in most countries and has a hideous fashion sense. But all that could be forgotten if Besharam had some soul and not just tacky toilet humour.

Kashyap, who revived the Bollywood masala formula with Salman Khan’s Dabangg, loses the plot in Besharam. Khan may have an innate knack of pulling off a ludicrous scene in which he roars like a gorilla and villains go flying back in fear, but a slightly effeminate Kapoor shouldn’t even attempt to replicate that kind of star power. The climax in which a lean Kapoor beats his opposition to a pulp is hard to believe. What’s also hard to believe is that Kashyap doesn’t capitalise on the golden opportunity to create magic with real-life partners Rishi and Neetu.

They play a childless couple who work in the Indian police. They are underpaid, overworked and generally unhappy with their employers. Like all Punjabi couples portrayed in Bollywood films, they are loud and were never the brightest bulbs in their classroom. They tick every stereotype on the list. While their performance is earnest, there is no novelty there.

Another baffling element in this film is the addition of actress Pallavi Sharda, who plays Babli’s lady love, Tara Sharma. The newcomer has a rather forgettable face. But even if you can’t recall her face, you will never forget the transformation that she undergoes in the film. Tara starts off as an ambitious girl who wants her life partner to exude class and breeding. She’s the kind of girl who buys a Mercedes car to impress her friends at a wedding. So imagine if such a girl, who’s so conscious of her image, decides to fall in love with a lovable low-life like Babli? Who in their right mind does that?

But it’s not best to go down that road since Besharam is all about suspending belief. Watch it if your love for the Kapoors transcends common sense.