BHAIAJI SUPERHITTT | 24 November, 2018

Metro Movies, Hanwant Khatri, Lalit Kiri, Fauzia Arshi, Santosh Bhartiya and Daily Multimedia Ltd.’s Bhaiaji Superhittt (UA) is a masala film.

Devi Dayal Dubey alias 3D (Sunny Deol) is an underworld don. His wife, Sapna Dubey (Preity Zinta), has not been staying with him because she doubts his character. 3D misses his wife and wants her back.

3D comes in touch with popular filmmaker Goldie Kapoor (Arshad Warsi) who gives him the idea of making a film based on 3D and Sapna’s life. He assures 3D that Sapna would return to him when the film would be released. 3D himself plays the male lead in the film while his heroine is Mallika (Ameesha Patel). 3D and Mallika have a night of passion before they start working together in the film which is being written by a useless writer, Tarun Porno Ghosh (Shreyas Talpade). Mallika falls for 3D and tries to woo him. Sapna, who has sent 3D a divorce notice, gets wind of the film being made and often visits the sets to ensure that she is not shown in bad light in the film. Sapna also senses that there is something going on between 3D and Mallika.

One day, 3D’s look-alike, Funny Singh (Sunny Deol), appears on the scene. Since he is an aspiring actor, 3D asks him to act in the film in his place.

There’s another track of rival underworld don Helicopter Mishra (Jaideep Ahlawat). In his endeavour to prove one-up on 3D, Helicopter Mishra routinely threatens and challenges 3D but is invariably shown the door.

Neeraj Pathak’s story is clichéd to the core. It tries to pack in everything in a bid to make the film a masala fare but the lack of freshness in the story is evident in the proceedings. His screenplay is oft-repeated but the only saving grace is that it is laced with some light moments and is fast-moving. All in all, while the story and screenplay may appeal a bit to the masses and single-screen cinema audiences, the classes and multiplex-frequenting audiences would not take kindly to the same. Neeraj Pathak’s comic dialogues – with additional dialogues by Aakash Pandey, Raj Shandilya, Shirish Sharma, Sumit Nijhawan and Raghuvir Shekhawat – are good whereas the others are routine.

Sunny Deol does an average job in the double roles. In the role of Funny Singh, his effeminate voice is an ear-sore. Sunny’s action scenes are mass-appealing. Preity Zinta does well as Sapna Dubey. However, her presence in the cast gives away the fact that the film has taken years in the making. It’s been many years since Preity quit acting. Arshad Warsi does a fantastic job as Goldie Kapoor. He evokes laughter at several places. His comic sense of timing is superb. Shreyas Talpade is also outstanding as Tarun Porno Ghosh. His comedy and timing are praiseworthy. Ameesha Patel plays the vain Mallika decently. Jaideep Ahlawat does a sincere job as Helicopter Mishra. Brijendra Kala delivers a fine performance. Pankaj Tripathi (as Gupta) has his moments. Sanjay Mishra is effective. Manoj Joshi makes his presence felt in a brief role. Mukul Dev gets limited scope; he is alright. Hemant Pandey evokes laughter in a scene or two. Amit Mistry doesn’t get to do much. Ranjeet makes his mark in a special appearance, as Sapna Dubey’s father. Pankaj Jha, Shubhangi Gokhale, Rajeev Mehta, Nawab Shah, Neha Mishra, Hanif Hilal, Rocky Sandhu (in a special appearance) and the rest lend good support. Vijay Raaz’s commentary is nice.

Neeraj Pathak’s direction is okay. Music (Jeet Ganguly, Raghav Sachar, Amjad-Nadeem, Sanjeev-Darshan and Neeraj Pathak) is fair. A couple of songs hold appeal for the masses. Lyrics (Amjad-Nadeem, Kumaar, Shabbir Ahmed, Neeraj Pathak and Raftaar (Rap)) are okay. Ahmed Khan’s choreography is so-so. The background music (by Vijay Verma, Anamik and Leyton) is quite impactful. Vishnu Rao and Kabir Lal’s cinematography is nice. S. Vijayan’s action and stunt scenes will be liked by the masses and front-benchers mainly. Muneesh Sappel’s production designing is alright. Sandip Francis’ editing is reasonably sharp.

On the whole, Bhaiaji Superhittt lacks freshness and will, therefore, not be able to recover its investment. It will fail in the big cities and multiplexes while doing only somewhat better in single-screen cinemas and small centres.

Released on 23-11-’18 at Regal (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Aum Exhibitors. Publicity: so-so. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak almost everywhere.