Review
Band Vaaje
Movie
Movie : Band Vaaje
Release Date: 15 March 2019
Starcast: Binnu Dhillon, Mandy Takhar, Gurpreet Ghugi, Jaswinder Bhalla, Smeep Kang, Nirmal Rishi, Rupinder Rupi, Seema Kaushal, Mannat Singh, Reet Sohal
Producer: Jatinder Shah Pooja Gujral Atul Bhalla Amit Bhalla
Director: Smeep Kang
Synopsis: Restaurant owners Jeet and Inder are brothers who live together. While Jeet is married, Inder is still seeking a bride for himself. The family is headed by their grandmother who is a strict elder and due to some reasons is anti Pakistanis. The entire film is the journey of Inder from being single to finding his lady love, who, he later finds out, is Pakistani. How the whole story unfolds and in the end how the Indo-Pak wedding alliance takes place is what this film showcases.
Review: Though the trailer of this film gave a glimpse of what was in store for us but you'll have to trust us when we say, that we were still not expecting the full package to be so annoying. A cliched set of dialogues where everyone is born and brought up in the UK but only one man is given that ridiculous accent adds to the whole frustration level.
Band Vaaje is a complete contrast to the beautifully woven love story Lahoriye which dealt with the same subject of Indian boy and Pakistani girl's marital alliance. Sadly, the makers of this film thought that after delivering a disaster like Nankana last year, they'd sweep the box office with a slapstick comedy but I guess this expectation of their's will soon fall flat on the face. This film has actually trampled the class created by this lot of actors for themselves over the years.
Our biggest disappointment in this film is the lead actor Binnu Dhillon. How could he not see what he's committing? After delivering some tremendous performances in films like Vekh Barataan Chaliyaan, Mar Gaye Oye Loko, and the recent one Kala Shah Kala, the man had raised his bar from being a comedian to a full-fledged actor. But Band Vaaje pushed him back into the same slab of comedians, who are cast only to force comedy onto the audience, even if the dialogues are just not funny. The man really needs to filter his projects because such films can actually get his career graph on a declining mode. He played Inder in this film who is looking for a bride for himself and ultimately ends up falling for a Pakistani girl whom he just sees dancing at someone's wedding. He follows her to her coaching center and then her home. To woo her, Inder also grabs the job of a servant at her place but the father and mother of the girl involve him in a silly spat of their own. Binnu's hair looks over made up while his face looks bad as compared to Mar Gaye where he was looking so dashing. His appearance, on the whole, has been shabby in this film.
Lead actress Mandy Takhar (Bilkis), who seems to have added a few kilos to her weight again, is the only person in the film who has acted according to her character. She was believable, relevant yet at times she underplayed her part. Personally, I think Mandy looks much better in other films as compared to this one. There was something not right with her make up and at times she was seen to be forcibly smiling with her front teeth purposely showing for the camera. The girl has a pretty smile and we wonder why her beauty was not aptly showcased on the big screen by the Director. We did like her suits in the film.
Gurpreet Ghuggi who plays Kashmir Singh is the only one with that rolled tongue accent that was way overdone and made us wonder why no one else but him has that peculiar speaking style. Born to a Pakistani mother and a Sikh father, this man has no Urdu in his lingua but a fake accent that does nothing for his character, which also reminded us of his Munde UK De days. It suited there but today, in an era where reel life characters are getting more close to reality, such acts are not easily digestible.
Jaswinder Bhalla and Mannat Singh play husband and wife. Their love is only shown towards the last few minutes of the film when they were to be caught red-handed by Inder's grandmother. In the rest of the film, this couple is shown fighting like cats and dogs and that too with such a high pitch that we had to literally shut our ears. Bhalla could have looked better with a turban in this film and Mannat could have screamed a little less for us to enjoy their characters but their fights were erroneous and at times very stupid. Banda kehnda kya bakwas kri jande eh dovey. By the way, Bilkis stays with this family at their home while her real mother and the rest of her kin stay somewhere else in the same country and we have no idea why was this set up done this way because she even says that uncle you've raised me like a father and blah blah. Why was Bilkis staying with the Bajwa family when she had such a big tabbar of her own??
Also Read: Delbar Arya: New Lead Face Ready To Enter Punjabi Films Opposite Harbhajan Mann
Smeep Kang, the actor in the film is fallaciously portraying a Jatt and to us, he was a very weak actor in the entire lot. Veteran actor Nirmal Rishi is yet again loud, plays her angry self and towards the end gets convinced for the marriage. But gallan di gal eh hai, ke when do a munde wale stalk kudi wale so much that they start raising questions at the bride's father's character?? Silly man!
Rupinder Rupi plays her usual self and is relatively better than the rest. The man who plays Bhalla's son seems to be copying Anil Kapoor all through and was miserably unimpressive, especially the Daddy Daddy bit.
Talking about the storyline and direction, both these aspects of the film were very weak. While the story and screenplay could have been written in a more sensible and appropriate manner, the director could have used his wit to atleast bring out some meaning to this senselessly baseless movie that has been inappropriately titled Band Vaaje. The cinematography was good but it just couldn't do anything for us too because of the chaos on the screen. The movie ends suddenly and while one thinks that the team will at least give a concluding speech that will work as a social message, there the whole conversation and convincing has been musically muted! (Befkufi)
Music: The film primarily had dance numbers and one or two romantic songs but nothing for us to hum on our way back home.
