Bholaa Review: Still Devgn Couldn’t Understand the Soul of ‘Cathy’, ‘Bhola’ Looks Like a John Wick Imitation

The essence of the film ‘Bhola’ is the same as that of the film ‘Kathy’. A prisoner released from prison after 10 years sets out to visit his daughter, who is growing up in an orphanage, and is picked up by the police on the way. All the police personnel of the area come to attend the senior officer’s retirement party. A batch of police also reaches there who have caught drugs worth Rs 1000 crore on the same day. Lured by the commission, a senior police officer makes a deal with drug lords to reveal their whereabouts. As soon as the deal is fixed, a deadly chemical is added to the liquor being distributed in the party. All police officers and personnel are destroyed. Except the heroine of the film. She has taken antibiotics so cannot drink alcohol. A prisoner released from jail gets the responsibility of transporting all of them to the nearest hospital. When he leaves with the truck, he is attacked on the way. The reason is the lady police officer present in the truck and her team who confiscated the drug cache. Big money has been openly announced for those who bring them back after killing them and every gang in the state wants to get it. The geography of this entire episode is Lalganj and Unchahar in Uttar Pradesh and it is clear from watching the film that hardly any of the producers set foot in this nearby area of ​​Lucknow.

The real soul of the movie ‘Kathy’ is missing from the movie ‘Bhola’. A rustic boy turns into a stylish badass here. The original film neither tells about the background of this man nor talks about his love story. In the film ‘Bhola’, the story of a mysterious person who helps the police has not been mysterious. Rae Lakshmi’s item number derails as soon as the film starts. For those who have seen the recently released ‘John Wick 4’, the film ‘Bhola’ may look like a cheap Hindi version of that film. But the world of ‘John Wick’ is just a world of crime, the police and common people are not part of the story, it’s like a video game story. Here is the second basic thread of the police story. In a state like Uttar Pradesh, where bulldozers run on the wings of criminals these days, such a dance of violence overnight seems unimaginable.

There are so many flaws in the script of the film ‘Bhola’ that it reaches Lalganj after passing through the forests of Unchahar and its characters start speaking Bhojpuri instead of Awadhi. The dialogues are round and round like jalebis. An attempt is made to add weight to them by using heavy words as this makes them sound hollow. A bully says, ‘There is no compromise in the constitution of lions.’ The heroine says, ‘If you have to work with a gun, you have to shoot.’ But the only applause in the entire film is when the brutal sergeant’s hammer hits the minor villain Ashwathama in the head. ‘Bhola’ repeatedly describes himself as a common man but the story of his past proves him to be the underdog of the city. The film also tries to show that Bhole has terror not only in his own area but also on the waves of the sea. ‘Bhola’, weak in terms of story, screenplay and dialogues, has such a gruesome juice from the beginning to the end that neither the humor stays in front of it nor its love and sympathy can move the audience.

Its starving hero is seen eating a plate full of meat in the film ‘Bhola’, which is releasing on the day of Ram Naomi. In the same scene from the original film, the protagonist eats a plate of rice. This one scene in ‘Cathy’ establishes the character’s hatred of the policemen in the story. This prisoner does not help in meeting the policemen who have reached the verge of death in the truck. They are seen eating all the biryani prepared for their feast alone. The message is clear that there is hatred against the system. But the ‘Bhola’ who repeatedly smears ashes on his forehead is seen worshiping in Kashi wearing a sacred thread and eating a plate of meat here. The police officer is here Tabu has been made into an IPS officer Diana so that she Can be brought in the film. There is also an action sequence specially kept for Tabu’s entry in the film but the combination of this scene is such that it does not create any explosive effect. Ajay Devgan’s fourth directorial venture after ‘You Me Aur Hum’, ‘Shivaay’ and ‘Runway 34’, ‘Bhola’ also proves that even though actor Ajay Devgn is amazing, the director’s insistence has left him now. is only He thinks of the film in fragments rather than as a complete story. That is why the film makes an impact in parts, but the films made under his direction do not have the feel of complete cinema.

Ajay Devgn’s pairing with Tabu from the film ‘Vijaypath’ has been successful in the last two films. The film ‘Bhola’ also breaks this illusion. The interaction between the two regarding their children makes no sense in the story to add to the painful relationship between the two. Bhole’s love story also comes as a hindrance to the pace of the film. Talking about acting, apart from Ajay Devgan and Tabu, Sanjay Mishra has influenced the most. Gajraj Rao and Deepak Dobriyal have only over acted in the entire film. Vineet Kumar’s character of Nithari could of course have become synonymous with horror but was not developed properly. He ‘eats’ the policemen but despite the name Nithari, the horror of this word is not established in the film. For those who love bloodshed, the film’s climax features Bhola’s dance in which he is seen destroying enemies with his trident. But the matter does not fit here either.