Y-Films’ Bank Chor (UA) is about a bank robbery.
Champak (Ritesh Deshmukh) plans a bank robbery with two accomplices, Teetar (Bhuvan Arora) and Gulab (Vikram Thapa). The three of them hold the customers and staff of Bank Of Indians hostage. CBI officer Amjad Khan (Vivek Anand Oberoi) reaches the bank to bust the robbery and arrest the bank robbers. He is waiting outside the bank for an opportune time to strike.
Even as Champak and his team are struggling to lay their hands on the cash, they realise that there is another person, who has come to the bank to loot it and who is in their midst in the bank. Jugnu (Sahil Vaid) soon introduces himself as the main bank robber and now takes over from Champak. However, there is a big difference. While Champak had all along been very kind to and sympathetic towards the hostages, Jugnu makes it amply known that he cares for nobody and nothing except his motive. Jugnu’s motive is to get hold of a hard drive lodged in a safe deposit locker in the bank. The hard drive has incriminating evidence against home minister Dongardive (Upendra Limaye) and his partner in crime, Ashutosh Sharma (Naveen Kaushik). Why, to achieve his goal, Jugnu even fires a revolver on a senior citizen in the bank, right in front of his son. The senior citizen is injured seriously.
There are several television reporters outside the bank, covering the unfolding drama. Among them is Gayatri (Rhea Chakraborty) who, at one point of time, is sent inside the bank by CBI officer Amjad Khan to negotiate with Champak.
What happens finally? Who is the real bank robber? Is he Champak? Or is he Jugnu? Or are they both bank thieves? Does Champak accomplish his mission? Does Jugnu succeed in getting hold of the hard drive? Is CBI officer Amjad Khan successful in arresting the bank robber/s?
Baljeet Singh Marwah and Bumpy have penned a rather stupid story which rarely, if ever, entertains. Although designed as a comedy, the story fails completely and absolutely to tickle the funny bone of the audience. On that count itself, the story is so poor that one does not even want to talk of lack of logic or of the weak characterisations. Besides, the story is so confused that it serves to confuse the viewers too. Ditto for the screenplay. Writers Baljeet Singh Marwah, Bumpy, Omkar Sane and Ishita Moitra Udhwani have written such a shoddy screenplay that it’s a shame! The only attempt of the four writers seems to be to make the audience laugh – and they rarely succeed. This irritates the viewers all the more because they can see through the concerted effort to make them laugh with half-baked and dated jokes. If the bank thieves are shown as imbeciles, the police officers, CBI officer and media persons also seem to have zero IQs. Agreed, the film is a comedy but if such trash is dished out in the name of comedy, it no longer remains a comedy – and since it no longer remains a comedy, all sorts of questions crop up in the minds of the viewers, most of which remain unanswered. Frankly, the writers’ idea of comedy seems to be at complete variance with today’s audience’s idea of comedy. The scenes and sequences are so contrived that it gets on the viewer’s nerves. The four writers seem to be under the mistaken belief that the audience has no brains but, obviously, that’s not true. Ishita Moitra Udhwani’s dialogues are jaded and lack wit and humour. Most of them seem to have been written to evoke laughter but, unfortunately, they fail to do their job.
Ritesh Deshmukh is badly handicapped by the weak script and is unable to rise above it. His performance is barely average. Vivek Anand Oberoi is also let down by the horrible script and can hardly salvage his performance which turns out to be very ordinary. He keeps repeating the word, “Go”, so many times that one starts expecting him to say “Go” whenever he appears on the screen. Rhea Chakraborty tries to be earnest but to not much avail. Sahil Vaid acts well as Jugnu but he doesn’t truly suit the role. Bhuvan Arora (as Teetar) and Vikram Thapa (as Gulab) lend fair support. Upendra Limaye is natural as home minister Dongardive. Vikram Gokhale is alright in a tiny role as Shashank Thakur. Naveen Kaushik has his moments as Ashutosh Sharma. Sandesh Kulkarni is irritating in the role of ACP Akhilesh Aane. Baba Sehgal also gets on the viewers’ nerves with his half-baked comedy. Ramakant Dayma is so-so as the bank manager. Chef Harpal Sokhi (as the Sardar hostage), Suresh Venkat (as police commissioner Singh), Raja Balasubramanian (as the CBI chief), Hemant Soni (as head constable Sakharam), Kavish Majumdar (as hostage Mukesh), Pradeep Shukla (as Mukesh’s father), Dhaval Barbhaya (as the bank executive), Divyajyoti Sharma (as the irritating aunty among hostages), Subhashish Chakraborty (as the inquisitive hostage), Ankit Verma (as the phone-obsessed hostage), Shyam (as the little tea server), Savish Sindhu (as cameraman Bittu) and Sharmila Joshi (as Mrs. Dongardive) lend routine support.
Bumpy’s direction is weak. His narrative style simply fails to evoke laughter even though the film is designed as a comedy. There are no songs in the film. Shri Shriram and Superbia’s background music is dull. Adil Afsar’s camerawork is routine. Parvez Shaikh’s action and stunts lack thrill. Aparna Raina’s production designing is alright. Saurabh Kulkarni’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, Bank Chor is a poor show all the way. It is far from being funny and, therefore, will not be able to steal people’s hearts. Its run at the cinemas will be very limited. Although the film, made at a very modest budget, will be able to recover its cost due to revenues from non-theatrical sources, its theatrical business will be poor. Collections on Sunday (June 18) are likely to be adversely affected due to India-Pakistan final cricket match in the ICC Champions Trophy.