Bholaa review: Ajay Devgn and Tabu starrer turns out to be just another tepid remake

By:- Aakruti Bagla

Directed by:- Ajay Devgn

Cast:- Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Sanjay Mishra, Deepak Dobriyal

Runtime:- 143 minutes

Rating:- 2/5

Story

Sica Gang, comprising of Ashwatthama and his brother Nithari are under the radar of cops as they supply 900 kgs of drugs worth 1000 crore illegally. In pursuit to make sure that the shipment is away from the gang while also trying to save the lives of 40 police officers who got drugged, IPS Diana Joseph takes the help of Bholaa. Convicted felon Bholaa, tries to meet his daughter for the first time after being released from prison after 10 years. He aids the gang as they get ambushed by the gang on the way to the police station. How Bholaa combats the goons and reaches his daughter lies in the rest of the film.

Review

Bholaa is the official Hindi-language remake of Lokesh Kanagaraj’s 2019 Tamil film, Kaithi. It also marks Ajay Devgn’s fourth directorial outing.

Bollywood’s tryst with the remaking of south films looks never-ending. And Bholaa was just seen joining the bandwagon of tepid remakes Bollywood recently offered to the audience.

Right from the word go, you get a hint that the film is high on action, which turns out to be all gory but no glory.

Bholaa begins with a group of cops, lead by IPS Diana confiscating a record amount of cocaine, which is hidden in a secret cell under the commissioner’s office. The drug mafia manages to put almost every police officer in the place under sedation by spiking their drinks. For help, theinjured IPS Diana turns to Bholaa, a life-term prisoner who has just been released on parole and is eager to see his daughter for the first time. A few college students who are stuck in the commissioner’s office with a line constable stop the criminals from breaking in and freeing their boss in the interim.

Well, reading so you may think that with too much going on in the film, it might be full of twists and turns offering an edge-of-the-seat experience. But unfortunately, it turns out to be a disappointment.

Although Ajay Devgn’s directorial is effective, his story falls flat. Ankush Singh and Shreedhar Dubey’s screenplay failed to evoke any sense of emotion. A few developments are half-baked which also makes us feel dissected from what is going on in the proceedings. The first half of the film was quite slow while the second half was a drag.
Except for one or two scenes, every sequence is redundant and seems like they are lifted off from other commercial films. Even the dialogues are not particularly strong, barring the narration by Makrand Deshpandey.

However, DOP Aseem deserves praise since his cinematography flawlessly captures high-octane action scenes.

Talking about the music, the background score turns out to be colossal disappointment as it’s all screeching in the ears. The songs are situations, but don’t have recall value.

Speaking of performances, Ajay Devgn and Tabu are a delight to watch everytime they team up. But, with Bholaa their performances seemed restricted. While Tabu deliver’s what is expected, Ajay Devgn’s efforts are palpable. He undoubtedly aces the action sequences, it fails to strike the right chord when it comes to emotional scenes.

Of the ensemble cast, one actor that blew our mind is Deepak Dobriyal as vicious Ashwatthama aka Ashu, the drug dealer. While Sanjay Mishra, Gajraj Rao, Vineet Kumar manage to leave an impact.

Overall, Ajay Devgn and Tabu’s punch falls flat. Just like Gajraj Rao says in the film, ‘tumko thoda patience rakhna padega, dhairya, dheeraj’, despite doing so, all we get is an average fare that is short of expectations.