Movie Review - Buddha Hoga Tera Baap - AB's still got it

To be honest, I was apprehensive about this movie, I could see from the trailers that the whole burden of carrying the movie was to be on Amitabh and sometimes that kind of thing fails miserably. Thankfully, not this time. The burden is indeed on AB's shoulders but he has proved that he is the original Coolie who can carry many such burdens with ease.

My most favourite thing about the film is AB's character. From the trailers I was expecting a formula film full of stereotypical scenes and typical Bollywood dialogue. I expected AB to be the archetypical gangster, an angry old men with guns ablazing and kicks flying. I was pleasantly surprised to see that his character had much more depth than that.

The film is still a formula film, but the story has been crafted cleverly around some good scenes. AB's character is deep and mature in addition to being strong and violent. There are several twists in the story, some small some big, but mostly unpredictable.

I really loved that AB's solution to all the problems is not fists and bullets. There are many of these problems - an obstinate father who wouldn't let his girl have a love marriage, eveteasing baddies, eavesdropping landlady, an old girlfriend, an amourous fan... AB handles each situation in a different way as it should be handled, always using his mind, his suave manner, his inner strength (sometimes outer strength too) and his charisma to solve problems. The last time I loved AB's on-screen character so much was in Mukaddar Ka Sikander. Well, I liked him in Cheeni Kum as well.

Other than AB, rest of the cast is quite good as well. I always like Hema Malini opposite AB. Raveena looks fine as AB's die-hard fan. Sonu Sood carries off the angry cop well. Sonal Chauhan is a beautiful girl and in the role she has, she does alright.

Dialogues are quite good and real-life. AB's dialogue "Main bullet se hi marunga, BP ya sugar se nahin." is quite good though weakened by over-exposure in the trailers. But we all know AB's dialogue delivery is amazing. Remember - "Main aaj bhi phenke hue paise nahin uthata!"?

The sequence where he does a parody of his own old songs is very filmy but I can see the public going wild on each of those songs in the theatre, he just has the presence and charisma.

I liked the climax. It doesn't drag on too long, has a mix of action and romance and doesn't resemble Disney stories. There's a minor discrepancy where they have taken artistic licence but I can't talk about it without giving things away, so let it be.

In conclusion, an entertaining film and unlike most recent films, it's one that can be watched again.