Viacom18 Motion Pictures, Kyta Productions, B4U Entertainment and Emmay Entertainment’s Baazaar (UA) is the story of a ruthless share bazaar kingpin.
Shakun Kothari (Saif Ali Khan) is a big name in the share market. He has made tons of money by investing in shares and stocks. He is a shrewd Gujarati Jain businessman who can stoop to any level to make money. Shakun lives with his wife, Mandira (Chitrangda Singh), and two little daughters, Alisha (Raddheya Mahendru) and Nayantara (Anika Malhotra).
In Allahabad lives Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra) with his father, Zulfikar Ahmed (Pawan Chopra), and sister, Aamna (Sonia Balani). Despite coming from a middle-class family, Rizwan has big dreams and he idolises Shakun Kothari. Much against his father’s wishes, Rizwan comes to Bombay and joins a share broking company, Capital Broking, owned by Kishore Wadhwa (Denzil Smith). His single-point agenda is to get close to Shakun Kothari and work under him. At Capital Broking, broker Priya Rai (Radhika Apte) sees a spark in Rizwan and supports him.
Then, one day, Rizwan comes in touch with Shakun Kothari who gets pretty impressed with his brilliance. Shakun Kothari gives Capital Broking a cheque for Rs. 100 crore and asks Rizwan to multiply his money. Rizwan fails at first but just about manages to remain in Shakun’s good books by making some profitable moves.
Shakun commits big frauds in the share bazaar with such finesse that he escapes the hands of law always. SEBI investigators are always after him but have never been successful in nabbing him as yet.
Anyway, soon thereafter, Shakun takes Rizwan under his wings and even starts a telecom company with Rizwan as its major shareholder. Shakun has bribed the minister to grant him licence, which would make the new company rich in a jiffy. But the government policy is changed at the last minute. However, by this time, Rizwan has given his sister’s fiancé a tip to invest all his savings in the telecom company floated by Shakun Kothari and himself.
All hell breaks loose when the new company lands in a terrible mess. Additionally, SEBI launches an investigation into what appears as a fraud. Rizwan is arrested for insider trading. What about Shakun Kothari? Is the SEBI able to prove Shakun as the fraudster or is Shakun too smart for SEBI? Who has shortchanged whom?
Parveez Sheikh has written an interesting story which keeps the audience interest alive right from the start till the end. It is inspired by Hollywood film Wall Street. But the share bazaar jargon and the technical aspects of the stock market make the drama class-appealing. The first half is very interesting despite being confusing at places. The post-interval portion is however, not as interesting and engaging.
Aseem Arora and Parveez Sheikh’s screenplay is quite effective but also class-appealing. A minus point about the screenplay is that it appears to be one of convenience at several strategic points. In other words, some difficult points in the drama are sought to be explained in a fashion that gives the audience the feeling that convenient liberties have been taken. Despite this, the tension in the drama does consume the viewers. The climax is interesting but the revelation of the catalyst does not come as a shock as the identity of the catalyst is quite predictable. Even for those who are unable to predict the catalyst’s identity, the revelation comes as a downer because it doesn’t have the force or the weight to match up to the drama before the climax.
Aseem Arora’s dialogues are weighty and impactful.
Saif Ali Khan does a very good job as the shrewd Shakun Kothari. He looks nice and plays the businessman with an evil streak, convincingly. Chitrangda Singh uses her facial expressions and body language very effectively to convey her emotions. She looks bewitching. Radhika Apte looks glamorous and acts with effortless ease as Priya Rai. She is supremely natural. Rohan Mehra makes a promising debut as Rizwan Ahmed. His free acting more than makes up for his devoid-of-glamour looks. Manish Chaudhary has his moments as SEBI investigator Rana Dasgupta. Sonia Balani (as Aamna Ahmed), Pawan Chopra (as Zulfikar Ahmed), Ravinder Singh Bakshi (as Balwinder), Deepak Gheewala (as Gaganbhai), Utkarsh Mazumdar (as Chheda), Abhishek Gupta (as Aamna’s fiancé, Anwar), Dr. Mukesh Hariawala (as Chhaganlal Parekh), Ajit Satbhai (as Bipinbhai), Danish Husain (as Dubey), Krunal Pandit (as Mani Shankar), Amit Jairath (as Sanjay Shukla), Vikram Kapadia (as Sandeep Talwar), and Denzil Smith (as Kishore Wadhwa) lend decent support. Vijay Tilani (as Ashish), Martin Jishil (as Venkat), Raddheya Mahendru (as Alisha Kothari), Anika Malhotra (as Nayantara Kothari), Sai Gundewar (as Suhas Sharma), Gaurav Sharma (as Sagar Malhotra), Sahil Sangha (as Vineet Mehra), Devesh (as Shantanu) and Pulkit Jawahar (as Kanai Morarji) are adequate.
Gaurav K. Chawla’s direction is very good. The debut-making director has handled the complex and layered story with a great deal of maturity. Music (Kanika Kapoor, Tanishk Bagchi, Yo Yo Honey SIngh, Sohail Sen and Bilal Saeed) is fair, with one song – ‘Adhura lafz’ (Sohail Sen) – being the best number. Lyrics (Shabbir Ahmed, Yo Yo Honey Singh, Ikka, Jamil Ahmed and Bilal Saeed) are appropriate. Adil Shaikh’s choreography is alright. John Stewart Eduri’s background music is effective. Swapnil S. Sonawane’s cinematography is very good. Amin Khatib’s action and stunts are quite nice. Shruti Gupte’s production designing is of a good standard. Editing (by Maahir Zaveri and Arjun Srivastava) is fairly sharp.
On the whole, Baazaar is a well-made film but it has limited appeal and will, therefore, be liked mainly by the classes. Lack of promotion, and a dull pre-Diwali period ahead will further adversely affect its box-office chances. Business in Gujarat (because of Gujarati characters) and Bombay will be the best. But overall, the film will not be able to prove profitable.
Released on 26-10-’18 at Inox (daily 5 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Anand Pandit Motion Pictures and Panorama Sturios. Publicity: so-so. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was below the mark at many places.