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Bhoomi Movie Review: Dutt and Aditi's earnestness save the day in this melodramatic revenge drama
Since the inception, it has been my strong belief that Bhoomi is the wrong choice as Sanjay Dutt’s comeback vehicle. The man is a superstar. He is swag, charisma and everything one would expect from Bollywood’s original Robinhood. As a feisty father in Bhoomi, Dutt is glorious, undoubtedly, but his film is a damp squib. If Omung Kumar made a dud with Sarbjit, Bhoomi is notch worse and he has no one to blame but himself. His tendency to overdo emotional manipulation is at an all-time high in this movie. As evident from the trailer, it’s a tender father-daughter story. The daughter is raped and character assassinated, as is the norm in Indian Courts, making this a Pink Reboot. There are all sorts of awkward questions posed at her – from how many times did the men rape to how many hours did it last. But what goes wrong here, is the film’s intention. You cannot topple a gang rape scene with a suggestive item number called Trippy Trippy. And Leone’s choreographer should’ve been briefed better on the film’s sensitive theme before he gave her the dance moves.
Omung doesn’t need to extract anything from Dutt who was every bit great in the film. The action, rage, melodrama, he is his usual self. But then his film way too fractured to make sense. The action overpowers everything else in the second half as Dutt is made to go on a rampage to destroy the men who defiled his daughter. The revenge plot is straight out of the 90s and though Dutt and Aditi Rao Hydari, both manage to pull it off well, Kumar’s writing is below par. A special word for Aditi, who is stellar in every frame, looking rightly innocent and naïve like she is expected to.There
is immense grace and poise with which she handles her character. The father daughter equation is nearly pristine, with both striking the right camaraderie for it.
The rape scene itself is cringeworthy, probably intentionally. But it was hard not to be reminded of the supremely haunting one in Mom. A little more craft would have gone a long way in making the scene more impactful.
As for the villains, Sharad Kelkar stands out. He could have managed better dialogues than the cra**y shriek one as he rapes a woman, but then again he was just following instructions.
AS a Dutt fare, it is spot on. He is gritty, packs punches like good ol’d days. The film hardly does any justice to his larger than life persona, but I’d understand why he choe a film like this to return to screens. At 50 something, he is foraying into new age cinema where men play their own age.
Blame Kumar to make a puply entertainer of a serious subject he deals with. The revenge angle was forced, only to make a hero of Dutt. But I bought into the sheer honesty with which the actors play their parts. It’s like Mary Kom all over again, a great actor saving a semi-terrible film. Tsk.
Watch it because no matter how flaky the treatment of rape is, the topic needs to be discussed nevertheless.
We rate it a 50% on the Pinkvilla Movie Meter
