Starring: Akshay Kumar, Vaani Kapoor, Lara Dutta, Adil Hussain
Director: Ranjit M Tewary
Rating: **
Akshay Kumar’s credentials in Ranjit M Tewari’s 'BellBottom' that are established right at the beginning of the 125-minute film, may be scripted as his job commensurate with his being an undercover agent who embarks on a covert mission to free 210 hostages held by hijackers. But the fact that he teaches music, is an ace in chess, speaks German and French, is a civil service aspirant, to name a few of his qualifications, is for you to imagine him as some kind of a genius, who even – hold your breath – offers unsolicited advice to Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Let me hasten to add that all of it isn’t anything new in any Akshay Kumar film; it’s more important to showcase all that he is capable of performing.
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Anshul Malhotra (Akshay Kumar) aka Bell Bottom as a RAW agent in New Delhi, has a sharp eye and is observant of almost everything that catches his attention. When an ICC 691 flight that took off from Delhi gets hijacked and is taken to Lahore, the then PM Mrs. Gandhi (Lara Dutta) led government, gets into a panicky mode. She, along with her most trusted aide RN Kao (Denzil Smith), is clueless about the fifth hijack in seven years that would spell disaster for them. She fears that as had happened in the past, this time around too, she would have to settle for negotiations with President Zia-ul-Haq of Pakistan. Mercifully, things turn in her favour this time when the Anshul steps in to salvage the situation. An old hand whose thorough research on hijack dramas is exemplary. ‘BellBottom’ has a plan and firmly believes that it is the ISI behind the hijack, and can second guess any hijacker’s plans. Mrs. Gandhi is skeptical of Anshul at first, but soon begins to like him, and permits him to go ahead with his plan much to the disappointment of every other cabinet loyalist present in the closed-door meeting. Anshul’s piece of advice to the PM refuses to come to any compromise with Pakistan soon triggers a counter-reaction in President Zia who then changes his entire approach and deputes Daljeet Singh (Zain Khan Durrani) to execute the final strategy. Anshul remembers that it was Daljeet whom he has to settle scores with recalling a past incident that led to a personal tragedy for him.
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What follows from there on is a personal mission for Bell Bottom that has him all the more unwavering in his duty towards the national mission.
Written by Aseem Arrora and Parveez Sheikh, the film is yet another example of an A-lister’s mission to sink their teeth into a character that enjoys Pakistan bashing. No prizes for guessing who between the two neighbouring states gets outsmarted!
For the 55 plus actor Akshay Kumar (who like nearly all his contemporaries, continues to play the 30 plus heroes and despite all his fitness can’t defy his age!), the justification to playing a character that is inspired from a real-life recorded account of several such agents is some kind of authorisation to bash up and punch men, and outmanoeuvre any and every move that one of the world’s most efficient intelligence agencies from across the border comes up with. In short, he gets to hog all the screentime leaving female stars Vaani Kapoor and Huma Qureshi desperately trying to make themselves relevant in this actioner. He cashes in on Bollywood’s current obsession with a history that claims to chronicle the Indo-Pak hostility from a new perspective. Just when we are recovering from two of last week’s releases based on real-life heroes – ‘Shershaah’ and ‘Bhuj: the Pride of India’ – this espionage thriller is hell-bent upon proving that we produce some of the best minds who are capable of decimating Pakistan. In this case, singlehandedly too!
Along with the writers and the director, editor Chandan Arora too had a tough job at hand: to allow several flashback sequences as past references to somehow bring in a plausible narrative and still focus on Akshay. The 125-minute thriller that begins with a hijack drama was meant to be a roller coaster spy ride, but with action zigzagging back and forth too often, it leaves viewers rather puzzled in trying to piece together several knots that keep tying up.
Kumar as an agent is fit and makes much of the action look believable. From among the rest of the cast, it is Lara Dutta, in an unrecognisable prosthetic avatar as Mrs. Gandhi, who adds dignity to her role. Though not much is expected of her as she sits rather quietly all through the meetings, it does make many of us sit up and wonder if one of the most charismatic women leaders in the world counted so much on the coterie of close aides and friends all the time. To add to her limited scope, the prosthesis does make her look stiff and stoic.
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The national sentiment being tilted towards the polarising debate on nationalism and patriotism, director Tewary would have no reason for such a subject to sag, and so, the fast pace of the film keeps you glued to the screen. Now, that truly is one great quality about the film; who cares for factual inaccuracies?
