Bhagam Bhag'
UK Rated: PG
Runtime: 157min 21secs
Director: Priyadarshan
Screenplay & Dialogue: Neeraj Vora

Plot Outline
Champak [Paresh Rawal] has a theatre group and he performs shows all over the country (in India). Bunty [Akshay Kumar] and Babla [Govinda] along with numerous others are actors in this group. These two in particular are quite the trouble makers who never miss a chance to flirt with girls, especially with the girls in their group.

At the completion of one of their shows, an organizer [Asrani] who is mighty impressed with the glamourous heroine of the play [Tanushree Dutta] offers Champak's group an opportunity to perform some shows in England.

The actress promptly opts out due to Bunty & Babla's misbehaviors toward her, thankfully for Champak, the deal has been signed already so the sho will go on, but the place of the missing heroine does need to be filled.

Once they reach London, the mischevous Duo are introduced to Gullu [Rajpal Yadav], a local in-the-know taxi driver who offers his advice to resolve their problems & being of general good service to his fellow Indian brothers as instructed by the organiser, Bunty and Babla are in search for a girl for their play, but naturally this leads to many hilarious misunderstandings.

Bunty and Babla's failed endeavours are amusing in themselves, how they also manage to get into trouble with a drug baron [Manoj Joshi], get nabbed by the Police who due to the language barriers call in their Police Comissioner [Jackie Shroff] add to the comedy of the first hour & we watch & enjoy as on the run they go.

How they get themselves a 'heroine' would form the crux of the film, or so you are led to think. The tale takes a twist when eventually they do find a willing lady for their show, as the baggage that comes with this is the story of mishaps that follows.

Review:
The first half of this slapstick has its multiple laugh-out-loud comic moments - it should be said quite early on that when I say this is slapstick I do mean by that to switch your intelligence to that of a young child if not totally off and take what you see as is. Logic has no place in viewing this (at all).

For modern-day slapstick fare, its pretty a pretty decent job, but since slapsticks aren't everybody's cup of tea in this day & age, it seems the writer here has tried to keep an audience outside of this engaged too, by having a murder mystery thrown in the mix at the intermission point (& the second half), this turning point from which it becomes a whodunit venture, you do feel engaged by the on-goings however it loses some of its original charm as its primarily seen & advertised as a comedy & the problem lies in that it tries to maintain this even when the plot has become rather serious. This is where ther writing certainly does falter some.

The pace also drops at this point and we end up seeing the best of neither worlds. The climax of most Priyadarshan films get rather silly & this one is no different. Though there is a clean resolution to the mystery which was introduced at the interval point, it lacks impact. Since we also have all the other comedy subplots hit centre screen at the climax point too - it kinda reminds you of the old skool Charlie Chaplin films, where there is total chaos, everything is going hectic. This fits in with the look & feel of the film but it seems to ensure you do notice that the murder mystery in the midst is a huge blemish - it just doesn't fit in. (I can't even imagine it in a Charlie Chaplin film).

Music:
The opening credits with the song 'Signal, Pyaar Ka Signal' (The Signal of Love) was a great start, The picturisation is done well capturing the colour you expect from theatre, but the ongoings with Akshay & Govinda fighting over the girl reminds us of the Big B & Govinda track 'Makhna' from 'Bade Miyan Chote Miyan' (Big Man Little Man) fighting over Madhuri Dixit - which was a superior song.

Tere Bin picturised on Akshay Kumar & Lara Dutta juts before intermission is a nice one, this is the one I'd play the soundtrack for. Watching it you'd think the streets of London are romantic or something. HA!

'Afreen' merely appeals for its picturisation as & ongoings as it does capture the theatre feel about it plus the mystery.Probably not one you'd listen to otherwise. As a sidenote, they seem to have found some 'heroine' after all & its not Lara Dutta, nor is it one of those special appearances that we in Bollywood do so well. Just another point of many telling you to leave your thinking caps off.

'Bhagam Bhag' (On The Run) in the closing credits is passable to watch, no real reason to have this in the flick but sure it makes the credits a bit more interesting I guess, its a decent enough song, I think its somewhat wasted thrown in to the end of the film.

'Aa Khushi Se Khud Khushi Kar Le' (Come & Happily Commit Suicide) wasn't in the film but is a pretty catchy number, it fits the feel of the rest of the tracks & voiced by Sunidhi Chauhan it is apparent that if it was picturised it would have been upon Lara Dutta as she has suicidal tendencies in the film from the very moment you see her - another hilarious angle.

What the soundtrack seems to lack in my opinion is just a simple theme tune, the piece from the 'Signal' track which is used in the theatrical trailer & the chase scenes. Instead there are remixes of pretty much all of the above tracks. Ah well *shrugs*

Performances:
Govinda is seen as the King of comedy & though he's been in hybernation his comeback is more than welcome. I wouldn't say this is his career's best performance or even close, but you have a certain expectation of a Govinda film & this criteria is met. He entertains, He makes you laugh.

During Govinda's absence, the close contenders for the top spot are none other than Paresh Rawal & Akshay Kumar and they aren't outshadowed even slightly. It becomes a little of concern that these two are becoming typecast for comedy like Rani Mukherji is for her crying, but unlike Rani this is okay, as the audience isn't fed up yet.

Lara Dutta is the sore thumb if there is one, it may just be me but she comes of as trying too hard & still failing when it comes to the moments of emotion. That said the ongoing little rants she has about how she wants to kill herself are highly amusing.

From the rest of the cast the one man that stands tall to the main cast is Rajpal Yadav as the taxi driver. His comic timing is absolutely perfect as always. I've yet to see a film where he is not on form. Bravo.

Jackie Shroff, Asrani, Manoj Joshi, Arbaaz Khan, Sharat Saxena & Shakti Kapoor are functional as the other people, but the principal characters get most of the screen space & rightly so.

Product Placements:
Highway Coaches, the coach company that brings the theatre company to the residence arranged for them. There was a Subway in a short swift view of the exterior area of the house too. At some point I also recall a sign for Brunel University.

A pan of the streets covered a sign for the BBC Proms, in some other such scenes were some generic London busses, however the National Express coach in this may have been placement, as later when they go to the Fast Track travel agency, there is National Express advertisements to be seen everywhere. (They even mention a phone number for the place 0207 745 1234 -- which me being me gave a call & it is in fact incorrect, I ended up calling some Hotel!! Having googled for a fast track travel agency it seems this could be anywhere - maybe a fake).

Okay, not all of these can be counted as placement per say as I doubt all the chocolate bars vaguely visible in a vending machine would count, but anyhow's there was a vending machine at Brighton's train station which seemed predominantly populated with Mars Confectionary near the climax of the film (including Bounty, Snickers, Maltesers, Mars & others that I've now forgotten).

The one that was really stuck out as a definite placement was the Ford Mondeo & all the other multiple Ford Police cars throughout that kept ensuring that the Ford logo was more than visible. Well, there we have it. Funny how much flies by you when you're not looking for it huh'

The locations around central London, especially around the Bank Tube station are noticable too if you know the area. Quite a lot of shots include exit 8 & show the Starbucks from which I got my swanky Starbucks Card, I mention this last because you can't actually see a sign, just the building, but I know what it is :)

I guess this whole film can be seen as an experiment gone a bit wrong on the writing side, but the direction is good & the performances are good, leaving to us the question of overall is it worth the watch?

Blemishes aside & I'm going to go ahead & say 'Yes'. Even with the blemishes, its a pretty fun film.
Worth a watch if you like silly films & I do mean really silly (6 out of 10)