Junglee Pictures and Excel Entertainment’s Bangistan (UA) is the story of two aspiring suicide bombers on a mission to change the world.
Hafeez (Ritesh Deshmukh) works in a call centre in Bangistan and is unhappy about the stereotyping of Muslims as terrorists. Praveen Chaturvedi (Pulkit Samrat), a devout Hindu, also lives in Bangistan. They have never met. The two reach Poland where an international religious convention is slated to take place on a massive scale. Hafeez has changed his identity and has come as a Hindu under the name of Ishwarchand Sharma. He has been trained by Muslim fundamentalists to explode a bomb at the convention and thereby ensure its failure. At the same time, Praveen has reached Poland in the guise of a Muslim, Allah Rakha, and he has come with the intention of creating mayhem with bomb blasts at the same convention.
Ishwarchand and Allah Rakha meet in Poland and become very friendly with one another. Ishwarchand has a soft corner for Allah Rakha because he (Ishwarchand) is himself a Muslim and, therefore, sympathises with Allah Rakha without knowing the truth about his identity and without letting out his own identity before Allah Rakha. Likewise, Allah Rakha, being a Hindu, is fond of Ishwarchand, taking him to be a Hindu. Allah Rakha also keeps his real identity a secret.
Then one day, each of them realises the other’s mission in Poland. Before long, their real identities get exposed in front of one another and that angers both of them so much that they end up thirsting for each other’s blood for having cheated the other. The two are arrested by the police when a bomb explosion takes place because of their fight. They are hospitalised.
The international religious convention is now underway and both, Ishwarchand and Allah Rakha, escape from the hospital to land at the venue. Meanwhile, realising that Ishwarchand may not be of much help, the religious head sends Zulfi (Aarya Babbar) to carry out the bomb explosion at the venue. But does Zulfi succeed in his mission? Do Ishwarchand and Allah Rakha help Zulfi or do they stop him?
Puneet Krishna, Sumit Purohit and Karan Anshuman have written a satire but their story is far from being funny or humorous. Their screenplay is also dull and dry and fails to evoke laughter. Why Ishwarchand fights with Allah Rakha on realising that he has been fooled by the latter is not clear – because if he has been fooled, he himself has also fooled Allah Rakha, that too, in exactly the same way, by concealing his real identity. Similarly, it seems strange and weird that Allah Rakha is angry with Ishwarchand for fooling him because he himself has fooled Ishwarchand in exactly the same manner as Ishwarchand has fooled him. The Muslim religious leader sends Hafeez to Poland, disguised as a Hindu, but when Hafeez/Ishwarchand has to be replaced, he sends Zulfi to the convention without any disguise, to create mayhem and destruction. It is such gaping holes in the screenplay which give the audience the impression that the writers have not worked hard on the script. Further, the whole drama looks frivolous and also purposeless although it is designed as one with a profound message. The Polish police’s inefficiency is only one instance to prove the lack of seriousness in the proceedings. Also, the making is so poor that an important convention like the international religious convention in Poland looks like the launch of a ‘C’-grade movie with only junior artistes around! The writing trio’s dialogues are funny at a very few places but routine and bland most of the times.
Ritesh Deshmukh is ordinary and doesn’t get many substantive scenes to showcase his talent. Pulkit Samrat also does an average job and, like Ritesh, he, too, hardly has any extraordinary scenes. Jacqueline Fernandez is okay in a special appearance, in an inane role. Kumud Mishra is routine as Abba and Guruji. Chandan Roy Sanyal performs quite well as Tamim but his role is silly. Aarya Babbar is more theatrical than anything else. But he does leave a mark. Tom Alter (as Imam) and Shiv Subramaniam (as Shankaracharya) make their presence felt. Suhail Nayyar (as the BPO supervisor), Aakash Dabhade (as Sanichara), Megh Pant (as Haatim), Paritosh Sand (as Praveen’s father), Paromita Chatterjee (as Praveen’s mother), Andrzej Blumenfeld (as Wilfred), Sunil Vishrani (as Pandit), Kuldeep Sareen (as Mishra), Janusz Chabior (as Bobbitsky), Cezary Pazura (as Tom), Katarzyna Mos (as Cindy), Bacha Ismail (as Osama Bin Haath), Vinod Rai (as Changping), Shahnawaz Pradhan (as Mirza), Tomasz Karolak (as Wilhelm), Bilguun Ariunbaatar (as Wong) and the others pass muster.
Karan Anshuman’s direction is as weak as the drab script. Although he has made a satire, he is unable to evoke laughter. His making is terribly weak. Ram Sampath’s music is not an asset although a couple of songs are alright. Puneet Krishna’s lyrics are ordinary. Rajeev Surti’s choreography is fair. Szymon Lenkowski’s cinematography is routine. Katarzyna Filimoniuk, Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborty do a routine job of the production designing. Shweta Venkat Mathew’s editing leaves something to be desired. But frankly, it is the loose script which needs to be blamed more than the editing.
On the whole, Bangistan is a flat satirical drama which fails to entertain and will, therefore, flop at the turnstiles.