Movie Review: Bell Bottom

Bell Bottom Movie Review Rating: 3 of 5

Star Cast: Akshay Kumar, Adil Hussain, Lara Dutta, Vaani Kapoor, Dolly Ahluwalia, Zain Khan Durrani

Director: Ranjit M Tewari

Set in the late 70s & early 80s, we’re thrown straight into the mission of the Indian government trying to tackle the constant plane hijackings happenings around the country. Following the usual template, the story offers the ‘problem solver’ in RAW agent Anshul, who is codenamed Bell Bottom (Akshay Kumar), to keep his real identity intact.

Exploring his ‘personal’ connection with the hijacking, we are introduced to Anshul’s ‘almost perfect’ life. The second half takes a considerable amount of time to set up the plan. Bell Bottom & his team plan to permanently end the constant hijacking incidents. Slipping into the ‘execution’ part of the plan, the pace races towards the climax, where you get surprised by more than one twist.

Aseem Arora, Parveez Shaikh’s story doesn’t promise an all-new template but what it offers is a fast-paced, emotion-bound thriller with a reliable backing of Akshay Kumar school of humour. One thing which it does different, from the films seen before on similar lines, is having an uncompromising focus on developing the plan for a mission. We’ve seen multiple movies taking a different route of brushing through the planning process and focus on the execution. But here, the story takes you step by step to understand the process of the film & leaves you on a high note with the implementation.

We’re spoilt by choices as Akshay Kumar has given us memorable performances like Special 26, Holiday, Airlift & Baby. But even those four performances are distinctively different from each other. All of this, because one man decides just to get up and act well in films like these. The confidence of having a solid script translates to Akshay doing things that would be with us for a very long time.

Adil Hussain is overqualified for his just about alright character ‘Santook’. He owns one of the best dialogues of the film, but the narrator relies too much on Akshay Kumar to let Hussain flourish properly. Lara Dutta made the headlines for achieving the ‘Indira Gandhi’ look, and trust me when I say she has acted even better.

Vaani Kapoor adds nothing of value to the narrative. Dolly Ahluwalia’s connect with Akshay Kumar was well written, but a little more depth would’ve done wonders. Zain Khan Durrani as the deadliest terrorist does evoke hatred towards him throughout.

Post Lucknow Central, Ranjit M Tewari surprises with not only the best film of his career but also a valuable addition to the much-crowded genre-space. As-crisp-as-Chicken-crispy screenplay & oh-so-well balanced dialogues help to hide Tewari’s weak points while directing.