[dropcap size=small]I[/dropcap]t took a tremendous amount of courage or stupidity to get this film made. With a whopping budget of 80-100 Crores , unique star cast and a genius behind the camera this movie was destined to rule. But eventually something went terribly wrong, the theatres went empty and the reviews went sour. It’s a really hard fact to believe that Anurag Kashyap with an awesome track record, a team of 4 writers and editing done by Thelma Schoonmaker who won Oscars for editing Martin Scorcese movies couldn’t put together a successful movie.
The story
The Story is same old clichéd anecdote, with all the scope of predictability .It’s a story of Johnny Balraj (a petty thief, a street fighter and a potential murderer) , Rosie Norona( singer with dark past) Kaizad Khambata( a manipulative business man ) trying to go against all odds to rise their destinies but a series of unfortunate and debacle events leads to something similar to a Greek tragedy. Bombay and Johnny are consumed by the schemes of the business men and politicians, it’s all about a single photo frame that disrupts the whole structure of Bombay Velvet and the lives of prime characters. On the story frontier Bombay Velvet has very less to offer , it’s referenced from past attempts.
It was too boring and unsatisfying.
With a run time of 2 and half hours, Bombay Velvet failed to intrigue the audience or entertain them to be precise. Let’s be honest it didn’t had anything we believe to be followed by cinema conventions. No ‘Om Shanti Om’ level of songs or ‘bhaijaan’ scale action. It was solely based on merit and narrative without any distractions.
The characters aren’t given any room to breathe and clarify their intentions. Like the character Johnny Balraj, we don’t know what to make of him, is he the ‘good guy’ because he’s fighting for his love and his dreams or a ‘bad guy’ for going on a mad murder spree is the common dilemma faced by the audience. Same was the case of Kaizad Khambata his intentions are also unclear in the entire movie, well that’s what expected from antagonists isn’t? What I think Karan Johar couldn’t bring justice to his role as Khambata and failed to intimidate the audience with his amateur acting. Movie hardly involved any entertaining factors like Bollywood romance, viral and catchy songs, or any thrilling and emotional event. All in all failed to deliver what was expected from it .
The Jazz
I’ll be frank the whole movie looked like a jazz promotional event , a lot of every jazz jigs keep popping every now and then with it’s essence all over the place, the makers should realize the norm that Indian audience isn’t habitual to jazz and rather resents it. The Climax in which Johnny is going for a shooting spree is accompanied by a jazz composition which steals away the grip and adrenaline from a potentially epic scene.
The director
Anurag Kashyap the next-gen film maker was kept in charge of this giant craft . We all know his struggle throughout the years , if not I must inform you his past movies were being banned, unaccepted and unknown , it was only movies like Dev D and Gangs of Wasseypur that brought him into limelight and provided him the fame and recognition he deserves , but there always so much fame that a man can handle that it consumes him. Mr Kashyap so consumed by his belief in the audience made a film mostly unfit for the audience which led to a disappointing flop.
‘Or’
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with the movie, may be we missed something, may be we aren’t ready for this style of film-making , may be we are still that impatient,inflexible and orthodox audience and cinema market the whole world claims us to be . We can never be entirely sure.
The movie had some really sentimental and surreal scenes of awe, like the climax with a Thompson sub-machine gun, Khambata trying to persuade ‘Chimman’ character with reference to the events occurred during and post partition of India, Balraj stabbing his friend and dumping his body. The dialogue quotient of the movie is also sublime complimented with great expressions and narration, no cheesy one liners and desperate attempts to intimidate the audience.
Talking about the movie, I personally couldn’t find anything thing wrong with it on an intellectual level apart from it’s entertainment quotient. The whole movie was professionally and beautifully crafted without any margin of errors, never deviated from it’s narrative. I complained about the songs earlier to which I clarify that the songs were actually based on the theme of the story setup and suited the movie in the best way .
The lyrics, instrument , singer’s voice and style everything about the songs were 100 % authentic and appropriate and the Jazz was widespread at the time, the only reason we didn’t like the music is that our taste has evolved to something more of a hip-hop, pop, and ‘Bollywood ‘ genre. If you hear these song again with an open ear and an open heart the music might eventually will grow on you.
May be the director still has what it takes . He quoted on a latest social media post that “Bombay Velvet has been worth all the heart ache and pain and a memory to cherish for life.” He also added, “Maybe our experimenting with the narrative didn’t work for most but I firmly believe in the film.” I put all my faith in this guy and will continue that faith within, that his work might be appreciated in the future like Parinda, Andaaz Apna Apna and Sholay. The director also quoted “May be when the shock of the narrative wears down , you will revisit it in the calm of your homes and will get into it .”
[alert type=blue ] Sorry to break this to you, all in all the points which I mentioned above doesn’t signify what’s wrong with Bombay Velvet, rather what might actually be wrong with the Indian audience that they can’t accept and will most certainly reject and abandon movie which fails to entertain. It may be bad or good but the worth of the movie can only be measured if you see it, Bombay Velvet never got that chance.We surely tend to embrace pointless peppery fatuous movies like Kick, Grand Masti with open arms and legs. [/alert]
Kamaal R Khan challenged Anurag Kashyap if the movie is successful he will will chop off his manhood.
[alert type=red ]May be it was boring because we couldn’t keep up with the pace, it was unsatisfying because we were expecting something else from it, it failed on the box office because it’s an exam and results season. Don’t let any of the reviews and collection status persuade yourself to restraint from this movie, listen to your heart .What we think this art work must have been made with the purest intentions for the love and welfare of movies [/alert]