Review: Bhagam Bhag

Run Priyan run

Cast: Akshay Kumar, Govinda, Paresh Rawal, Lara Dutta
Direction: Priyadarshan
Rating: *1/2

Ever since Priyadarshan made Hera Pheri in 2000, he has been continually repeating the formula. When he doesn’t do so, as with Kyun Ki, he fails miserably.

The formula is simple. A whole lot of people, unknown to each other, are set on a collision course. Misunderstandings and mistaken identities create mischief, mayhem and confusion, till 14, 15, 16, 17 or 18 reels later everyone runs out of steam and an end is reached.

Bhagam Bhag, sigh, is just more of the same. This time it is about a drama troupe from India led by the redoubtable Paresh Rawal who are short of a heroine. Both the leading men of the group, Govinda and Akshay Kumar have separately made a pass at the female lead Tanushree Dutta and she has walked out in a huff.

They decide to search for a heroine once they reach London, where language difficulties and the similarity of heroine to the word heroin get them repeatedly in trouble. When they finally find Lara Dutta, she brings along with her, an altogether different set of problems which include a murder mystery.

The director obviously hasn’t learnt yet that brevity is the soul of wit; this caper goes on and on including petty crooks, greedy husbands, the commissioner of police in London, Jackie Shroff, and what have you. Beyond a point, even the natural goofiness of Govinda, which his long absence from films hasn’t dented and Akshay’s truly funny comic timing don’t hold.

Priyadarshan has never been one for subtleties and in Bhagam Bhag too, he doesn’t hide his talents under a bushel. The climax, which has the whole cast, irrespective of age and sex, dangling from a crane gone out of control is as physical and gory as any prime time cartoon though not half as entertaining, more’s the pity.