Bazaar- review

Bazaar (2018) 

Directed by: Gaurav Chawla 

This is more like watching The Wolf of “Dalal Street”, the movie has no connection with its namesake art movie released way back in 1982, this is more of an off-beat corporate drama based on stock market politics. Now just how many Bollywood films can be categorised as corporate themed? Maybe Shyam Benegal’s impressively canvassed Kalyug (1981) or Madhur Bhandarkar’s poorly etched Corporate(2006), maybe a few more. But that’s it. 

The movie is one dimensional and follows the journey of an Allahabad based young boy Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra) whose keen and curious interest in the stock markets lands him in the big bad world of corporate politics in a high profile stock broking establishment helmed by Wadhwa(Denzil Smith). Rizwan soon joins hands with his idol the stock market mogul Shakun Kothari (Saif Ali Khan) who’s a sharp minded aristocratic Gujarati tycoon. The collaboration soon turns into rivalry and they turn bitter foes, they are bind together by only one common factor- the stock market. 

The director has added an heavy dose of stock/ share market and if you ain’t well versed with the market it’s a little difficult to comprehend the on screen proceedings. There are some good scenes but most technical departments are badly flawed including the dialogues, screenplay and an hurried editing. Costumes and the art direction are first rate. The music is not worth mentioning including Yo Yo Honey Singh’s irritatingly loud yelling. 

If at all the director has succeeded in it would be the brilliant characterisation, you get to see every character and more precisely the primary characters displaying grey shades. There is nobody who is stark black or virgin white in this corporate thriller, each character (specially Mehra’s and Khan’s) are distinctly grey shaded and humané. 

Saif Ali Khan packs a punch with a good performance after his delightful web series sacred games(2018), adding beautiful shades to his middle aged Gujarati character, displaying superb charm with sharp wit and a likeable sardonic smirk on his regal face. Newcomer Rohan Mehra’s very sincere performance gets pulled down by the over nature dubbing artiste’s voice which doesn’t suit his age. Nevertheless he acts well and has that loverboy charm like his father the late actor Vinod Mehra. Manish Chaudhary as the SEBI officer gets lesser screen time and has nothing more to do than grin, whereas Pawan Chopra is impressive as Mehra’s father and delivers an emotionally enriched performance. 

Ravishing Radhika Apte is a delight to watch as the corporate employee who has no qualms about going that extra mile for a few perks, this supremely talented actress has the courage to take on bold and unconventional roles and play them with such mighty conviction. 

Certain sequences don’t make sense for instance the way Khan gets impressed with Mehra in such a short span and the way it’s built up in the story appearing too filmi. The transformation of Mehra from a small town boy to a corporate magnet within a couple of months looks too fast to be realistic. Without giving away any spoiler there is a train sequence involving Mehra which is far too filmi to be a part of an offbeat film like this. 

And then there are those brilliant moments directed in this film which enhance its market value with no pun intended. The cold and uncomfortable relation between Mehra and his father is icebroken in a beautiful scene where Mehra’s sister asks him to hug their father, captured well by the director. Khan’s sophisticated marriage of convenience with his ancestrally inherited wealthy wife(Chitrangada Singh) shows the bitter reality of elite high society couples. 

With a better treatment this could have well been a good thrilling experience but unfortunately the director loses grip and dramatises a lot of basic outlines which in turn fail to uplift an already weak and battered storyline. So you may skip this Wolf of Dalal Street if the stock market figures ain’t your cup of tea. 

⭐️⭐️