Bhaiyya Ji Movie Review: Manoj Bajpayee Deserves A Better Milestone for His 100th Film Than This Dull Revenge Thriller (LatestLY Exclusive)

Bhaiyya Ji Movie Review: That Manoj Bajpayee chose to go 'massy' with his 100th film, Bhaiyya Ji, is an interesting choice. It is a genre that the actor has never played a positive role in, though he has portrayed antagonists in films like Baaghi 2. There is nothing wrong with doing a masala film—if done right, it is one of the most entertaining forms of cinema. It is another matter that only a few have perfected the formula. Bhaiyya Ji, sadly, only dilutes the formula in a melodramatic, sluggish manner. The film is helmed by Apoorv Singh Karki, who had directed Bajpayee in the hard-hitting courtroom drama, Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai, but Bhaiyya Ji displays the director's rawness in handling an action-entertainer. Bhaiyya Ji Teaser Out: Manoj Bajpayee Seeks Revenge in Gripping Glimpse.

Interestingly, Bhaiyya Ji comes at a time when the nation is in fresh outrage over the Pune Porsche accident that had killed two innocent civilians. The conflict in Bhaiyya Ji arises from a fatal accident that kills the hero's young step-brother. What makes the coincidence even more twisted is that the victim in the film shares the same name as the alleged underaged perpetrator of the real-life incident. For the sake of legal compliance, I will not name this character, but I will discuss his brother Ram Charan (Manoj Bajpayee), also known as Bhaiyya Ji.

What Makes Bhaiyya Ji Turn John Wick?

Bhaiyya Ji is the resident John Wick of Bihar, who has left his violent ways behind and is about to marry his long-time girlfriend (Zoya Hussain), when his brother is crushed under a car by one of the villains and then burnt alive by the other.

Watch the Trailer of Bhaiyya Ji:

The villains - a malevolent, arrogant brat named Abhimanyu (Jatin Goswami) and his sadistic, powerful father Chandrabhan (Suvinder Vicky) - underestimated who they antagonised in the process. A despondent Ram Charan, provoked by his perpetually fretful stepmother (now I see why he is named Ram Charan), swears revenge on the father-son duo, rekindling his violent persona with the support of his followers.

Why Bhaiyya Ji Fails As John Wick Clone

When a film is well-received, it often inspires countless imitations, but it is very rare for the replica to match the original. Such is the case with John Wick. Setting up a John Wick-style revenge drama in the hinterlands of India could have been enthralling if handled deftly. The writing and the editing should be crisp, the direction tight, and the action mind-blowing. Bhaiyya Ji fails on all these counts.

By replacing a dog with a sibling (though the first victim in the film is an unseen dog), the protagonist's JW vendetta is made more relatable to the desi audience. However, the movie spends too much time mourning a character we barely know. Nearly 45 minutes pass before Bhaiyya Ji springs into action, as previous scenes wallow in melodrama.

Even when Bhaiyya Ji enters revenge territory, the film keeps returning to sentiments and melodrama to heavily underline the hero's motivations, as if the audience didn’t grasp it already. There is a weak discussion on the futility of revenge that is instantly forgotten by all participants. The movie attempts to incorporate such complex chatter and local politics, only to abandon these elements for a simple revenge saga, so as to allow Manoj Bajpayee to fulfil his massy hero aspirations. The actor is as good as always, but this role is not challenging for him, even if it requires performing unbelievably unrealistic stunts.

Loud, Growling Villains

The villains are poorly written, with just one dimension—sadism. This is a pity, as one of them is played by the brilliant Suvinder Vicky of Meel Patthar and Kohraa fame, and the other by the underrated Jatin Goswami, who impressed us in Gulmohar and Garmi. They could have easily made the antagonists far more complex and interesting if the writing supported them; instead they end up evoking memories of Deepak Shirke and Gulshan Grover from the '90s cinema. Meanwhile, Vipin Sharma plays a corrupt cop who delivers feeble one-liners and switches loyalties based on the film's urgency to wrap things up after spending too much time being a cry-fest.

The movie also takes ludicrous steps to build the hero's larger-than-life image with ideas seemingly borrowed from a Telugu potboiler. For instance, when a pandit hears Bhaiyya Ji’s voice over the phone for the first time, he is blown away by its 'impact'. There is a running gag where one of Abhimanyu’s sidekicks keeps hallucinating about Bhaiyya Ji for no apparent reason, except to set up a lame 'gotcha' moment in the climax. Instead, the film compensates for the lack of good mass moments with an ear-deafening background score filling up nearly every scene. Sirf Ek Bandaa Kaafi Hai Movie Review: A Brilliant Manoj Bajpayee Leads This Effective Courtroom Drama With Panache!

Disappointing Action Scenes

If only the action scenes were competent enough, I would have some reason to smile. Instead, we get poorly edited sequences and unimaginative choreography, which is a travesty since it undermines the film’s primary purpose: showcasing Manoj Bajpayee as a credible action star. In fact, I found Zoya Hussain more impressive in the action scenes - at least Bhaiyya Ji deserves some credit for not relegating the heroine to a mere supportive role (even if it takes the film's last act to give her something substantial to do). She and Bajpayee even get to replicate an iconic Tony Stark-Pepper Potts moment from Avengers: Endgame.

What annoyed me the most is that when the first Bhaiyya Ji teaser came out, it grabbed our attention with a sequence that featured the bloodied hero surrounded by hordes of villains, who then drove them away coolly with a bidi on his lips. This scene appears only for a couple of seconds in the film as part of an exposition montage. Boo!

Final Thoughts on Bhaiyya Ji

As Manoj Bajpayee's 100th film as an actor, Bhaiyya Ji is an underwhelming milestone. As an action film with a revenge angle, Bhaiyya Ji is an utter disappointment with only a couple of positives to boast (more Zoya Hussain in cinema, please). As Bollywood's attempt to deliver another mass movie, Bhaiyya Ji ends up being more of a snooze-fest, though the deafening background score doesn't allow you to take that much-needed nap.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 24, 2024 03:57 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).