Friday, 23rd September 11:00 AM IST

 

Banjo Is Musical With A Heart 

Pluses:

Riteish Deshmukh is intense and honest, Nargis looks stunning, couple of good songs, authentic locations 

Minuses:

Slow and predictable screenplay, over dramatic background score 

Critic Rating:

3/5

Business Rating:

2/5

Verdict:

Watch it for Riteish Deshmukh 

Detailed Analysis:

Ravi Jadhav has some memorable Marathi films to his credit. Now he is making debut in Bollywood with a Riteish starre? rooted in lanes of Mumbai. 

Plot is interesting. Chris (Nargis Fakhri) leads a privileged New York life. She has the luxury of opting music as a career, unlike Tarrat and the members of his Banjo team, who play on the streets of Mumbai for survival. Some laugh, some just nonchalantly watch when Tarrat comes out of the gutter in the introductory scene. He might be a motor-mouth, but helplessness is written all over his face. He can’t hide the fact that he extorts money for the local corporator, or he is a drunkard, or he has been a loser throughout his life.

But, he plays banjo at local Ganpati festivals and that’s a sight to behold. There, he is the master and the universe takes cues from his notes. One such performance has reached Chris and now she is in India to make music with his team. Other team members are Greece (Dharmesh Yelande), Paper (Aditya Kumar) and Vaaja (Leslie). You would expect they will all make great music now but bang in the middle of it lands a jealous rival, land mafia and a creepy studio manager involved. We also get to see that Riteish is as good with his fingers as he is with his fists. He can fight off men demanding hafta and can be the all-round saviour. A good musical drama suddenly changes into an average formula tale of a hero with a golden heart, villains who can consider a sudden change of mind, heroine with a knack for dancing and stretched dialogue-baazi.

This loosens the noose that was so intelligently set. The second half keeps dragging for no apparent reasons. At one point, you even feel like watching another film in the ABCD franchise. Thankfully, Jadhav realises it in time, and resorts again to the underdog story.

Film has cliche screenplay and has all cliche twists. It has some life in 1st half bu in middle of 2nd half all fizzle out. 

Performance wise, Ri?eish Deshmukh is superb as he balances act in between intense look and natural flair. Nargis Fakhri fits the role and she looks stunning. Dharmesh, Aditya Kumar and Ram Menon are very good. 

Film has lazy editing. Background music is loud. Cinematography is decent, production design is good and costumes are apt. Music is melodious with couple of good songs. 

Director Ravi Jadhav shows his brilliance and command over comman man's stories in first half but he falls for Bollywood cliches in 2nd half. 

Film released today and will open with decent numbers but should find difficult to grow over weekend unless reviews turn the tide. 

Go for this if you have not seen earlier ABCD films!