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Pooja Entertainment and Emmay Entertainment’s Bell Bottom is based on a rescue operation which actually happened during Indira Gandhi’s regime as Prime Minister.
Anshul Malhotra (Akshay Kumar) is a RAW agent who is given charge of rescuing the passengers of a plane hijacked by Pakistani terrorists. Actually, his senior, Santook (Adil Hussain), recommends his name to the PM when another aeroplane is hijacked after earlier hijacks. The ministers, Intelligence team and other officials and advisers mock at Anshul (whose code name is Bell Bottom) but the PM sees merit in what Anshul says about the hijackers and their modus operandi. She, therefore, asks Anshul to lead the rescue operation.
Does Anshul succeed? Where is the aircraft? Is it in Pakistan or some other country?
Aseem Arora and Parveez Shaikh have written the script of the thriller based on Vashu Bhagnani’s story idea. The story is quite interesting. It reminds of Baby and Airlift at places. The duo’s screenplay, however, is not consistently engaging. The first half moves at a slow pace and, therefore, does not grip the audiences as much as it should. This is probably because too much time is spent on establishing Anshul’s character and on his family scenes. But it must be mentioned that the last 10-15 minutes before interval are very engrossing. The pace definitely picks up after interval. The second half is also more engaging and far more interesting than the first half. Of course, one doesn’t experience the continuous excitement of watching a thriller. The reasons are: lack of novelty in subject, absence of absolutely breathtaking scenes, and a fairly tame climax.
Besides the decent post-interval portion, there are some more elements on the positive side. For one, there are some light scenes and some heartwarming scenes in the pre-interval portion. Again, the twists and turns in the last part of the film keep the audience’s interest and excitement alive. Aseem Arora and Parveez Shaikh’s dialogues are excellent at places and fair at others.
Akshay Kumar plays Anshul (Bell Bottom) very effectively but one has seen him doing similar things in earlier films and, therefore, one misses novelty in his performance. Vaani Kapoor gets limited scope but she does justice to her character. Lara Dutta enacts Indira Gandhi very ably. Special mention must be made of her prosthetics and make-up, which are superb. Adil Hussain impresses in the role of Santook. Huma Qureshi is quite good as Adeela Rehman. Zain Khan Durrani has a wonderful screen presence and he acts very well as Doddy. Abhijit Lahiri leaves a lovely mark as Khan. In the role of Rao, Thalaivasal Vijay is also good. Denzil Smith (as Kao) makes his presence felt. Dolly Ahluwalia is endearing, though a bit too loud, as Raavie Malhotra. Mamik Singh hardly gets any scope as Anshul’s brother. Sumit Kaul (as Dollar), Sunit Tandon (as ISI chief), Jatin Negi (as Sundar), Aniruddh Dave (as Puchchi), Amit Kumar Vashisth (as Saand), Kavi Raj (as Zia-ul-Haq), Husam Chadat (as Farhad Bin Sultan), Anjali Dinesh Anand (as Anshul’s sister-in-law), Ashok Chhabra (as Morarji Desai), Balram Gupta (as home minister), Girish Sharma (as Anshul’s friend), Nitin Khanna (as the Dubai policeman at the dock), Karim Saidi (as Abu Mukhtar), Deesh Mariwala (as Tejeshwar), Ahmed Yahya Berrada (as the IB official of Dubai), Sunny Patel (ATC officer in Dubai), Kavita Bharadwaj (as kabaddi player on board the hijacked plane) and the others provide decent support.
Ranjit M. Tewari’s direction is fair. But he ought to have made a more taut film which would have kept the viewers at the edge of their seats, at least in the second half and particularly during the climax. Music (Gurnazar Singh, Shantanu Dutta, Tanishk Bagchi, Maninder Bhutter, Amaal Malik and Kulwant Singh Bhamra) is good. Lyrics (Rashmi Virag, Seema Saini, Gurnazar Singh, Tanishk Bagchi and Babbu) are alright. The ‘Marjanga’ song (music and lyrics by Gurnazar Singh) is melodious. ‘Khair mang de’ (music by Shantanu Dutta, lyrics by Seema Saini) is also quite good. Ganesh Acharya’s choreography of the ‘Marjanga’ number is appealing. Daniel B. George’s background music is impactful. Rajeev Ravi’s camerawork is of a good standard. Parvez Shaikh and Dave Judge’s action and stunts are quite nice but they needed to provide more thrill. Production designing (Amit Ray and Subrata Chakraborty) and art direction (Pallavi Pethkar and Nilesh Vishwakarma) are appropriate. Chandan Arora’s editing is fairly sharp. Exciting 3D effects (shot in 2D, converted into 3D) are almost non-existent.
On the whole, Bell Bottom has an ordinary first half but a fairly good second half. It is definitely not a breathtaking thriller, but it will do fairly well at the box-office. It will also get the advantage of being the first big star-cast and big-budget film to hit the screens in 17 months. Notwithstanding the fact that most of the states have permitted cinemas to operate at only 50% capacity and with other restrictions, and also that cinemas in Maharashtra are still shut, the business of the film will be quite good.
Released on 19-8-’21 all over except in Maharashtra (where cinemas are still shut due to COVID-19) and some smaller circuits (where also cinemas have not been permitted to reopen) thru PEN-Marudhar Cine Entertainment Pvt. Ltd. Publicity: excellent. Opening: very ordinary (since morning shows started at odd timings like 8.30 a.m., 9 a.m., etc.). Collections are bound to pick up as the day progresses.