Bad Boy Review - Another Unexpected Bad Film by Rajkumar Santoshi

Rajkumar Santoshi gives a break to newcomers Namashi Chakraborty and Amrin Qureshi in his rom-com Bad Boy. As the title has it, let me take a liberty and say, "Well, not bad"! I wish I could have said that. Bad Boy has some moments that you can enjoy and cherish fleetingly, but the otherwise content suggests something else. It seems repetitive since we have seen these rom-com formulas in many films over the years. Namashi told us in an interview that Bad Boy is Andaz Apna Apna meeting Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani. I'd say he was wrong. For me, Bad Boy is Maine Pyar Kiya meets Mr. and Mrs. Khiladi. I stick to Bollywood since we are talking about Bollywood movies otherwise. I could have used many other names from the Hollywood and South Indian cinema industries too. Bad Boy struggles with its cliches and outdated storytelling, which might have been forgivable for a new director but not for someone with the stature of Rajkumar Santoshi. He has given us so many iconic movies that we remember them even after so many years. It's so heartbreaking to see him deliver bad films, and this phase of his career is indeed tormenting to die-hard fans (including me on that list).Bad Boy is about a good-for-nothing boy, Raghu (Namashi Chakraborty), who hasn't got any goals or standards in his life. He falls in love with a beautiful, intelligent, and talented girl, Rituparna (Amrin Qureshi), whose father (Saswata Chatterjee) is a highly strict and disciplined man. After some heroic escapes, Rituparna begins to like Raghu and eventually falls in love since Raghu is the only one who makes all her wishes come true. However, Ritu's father is against the marriage as he wants a well-educated, well-mannered, and sophisticated guy for his daughter. Raghu is then challenged by Ritu's father to earn money and run a household for one month. Will he succeed and manage to get Rituparna's hand for marriage?Bad Boy is full of cliches, but the problem lies in its screenplay, which looks damn outdated for 2023. Just come to think about it, it's 2023, and we are still stuck with Heroine's dupatta getting on Hero's face in slow motion. We are still looking for replacements for heroic scenes like the hero saving the heroine from a goon/bad guy in college, the heroine's caged life at home, and the hero freeing her from that cage to complete her fantasy wishlist. The hero will earn money, no matter what happens. He would ask for 50–60k in monthly expenses and yet choose to drive an autorickshaw. As if autorickshaw drivers are Engineer/doctors who can manage 50k per month. There will be a lot of hurdles in the hero's life, yet he will handle them with style, and those hurdles will be structured by the heroine's father. He will be humiliated for being the son of poor/middle-class parents, but they will give a speech on how they are wealthier because they are blessed with wealth of love, care, and happiness instead of money and jewellery. Come on, we have been reciting these formulas for decades now. Shouldn't we stop now?Namashi's character is more of a fun and brash guy than a macho hero. He has fewer fight scenes, even though there was scope to overdo them. His comic timing works, but the emotional and retrospective scenes are quite underwhelming. Never mind; it's just a film, and hopefully he will improve with the next one. Amrin looks drop-dead gorgeous in the first 4-5 frames and in the songs. Her accent is decent—maybe that's what she needed for the character, and it isn't a female-driven film, so the equation can be understood. But again, the same issue: she couldn't show finesse in tough scenes. There seems to be a lot of potential in her; maybe it's just a matter of the right character. Saswata is too stubborn to be called a generous and intelligent character. His grip over the Bengali accent is superb, but I think I am not very friendly with that attitude, or rather, I am not in the mood to accept it. Johnny Lever comes, does what he was called for—comedy—and leaves. Rajesh Sharma is the most grounded character in this film, and the humour from his side worked just fine. Darshan Jariwala, Madhu Anand, Nandini Chatterjee, Rajpal Yadav's cameo, and others have done a pretty decent job here.Bad Boy has good music. There are too many songs that make the narrative lengthy, and a couple of them look absolutely unnecessary. Ali is scoring charts, rightfully, and it's the best of them all. The cinematography is strictly average and too bad in the action sequence. Bad Boy has a modern tone but lacks modern humour. Both the scenes in the principal's office are funny, but there's nothing new or humorous about them. "Ok sir, thank you, sir," could have been a lot better. Johny Lever's "Polto abhi Zinda hai" becomes irritating after a while, and why do you need to add cartoonish subtitles for that? Rajkumar Santoshi continues his bad form. I can't really believe that he is the same man who gave us Ghayal, Damini, Andaz Apna Apna, Ghatak, Barsaat, The Legend of Bhagat Singh, Pukar, and Lajja. He was doing decent until Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani, but now it's his third failure in a row. Unexpected! Bad Boy is an unexpected blunder from him. It might have worked with a few modern theories, but the outdated presentation doesn't give it any chance to stand steady.