Halla Bol movie rating and review

Halla Bol (2008) movie rating and review :

Tedious journey to the top

Rajkumar Santoshi’s is like those loud 80s Bollywood potboilers that bark but never bite. For all those expecting the film to be another Rang De Basanti, well, to put it politely, it is not. This is instead a tedious, indeed agonizing, journey of a reel hero emerging as a real hero.

Halla Bol is such a hackneyed script that it’s quite incredible how it found funding in a day and age when even Sunny Deol has gone silent.

Santoshi brings in Safdar Hashmi’s famous street theater and hence the title – Hashmi was murdered while performing the play Halla Bol on the street of Delhi – adds toughs of Ray’s Nayak and puts the Jessica Lal case in the forefront. Despite his best intentions – yes, the film’s heart is in the right place – Halla Bol turns out to be a terrible hotchpotch. The loud filmy dialogues may draw a whistle or two at the B-centers, but they really do nothing for the audience or the film.

Ajoy Devgan plays small-Towner Ashfaq, whose acting tutor is Siddhu (Pankaj Kapur), a dacoit- Turned-messiah doing street theatre throughout the country stoking the fire lit by burning social issues—very much like Hashmi.

Ashfaq tries his luck in Bollywood, becomes Sameer Khan, scores a hit, marries his Small-town Sweetheart Sneha (Vidya) and goes on to deliver a String of blockbusters punctuated with brand endorsements, including that for Gateway of India undies!

Then when Siddhu arrives at his door with a cause, Sameer doesn’t want to get involved in the controversy. But he must as a girl is shot dead at a party where he is the guest of honor. Initially, Sameer denies having seen anything but soon the cry Rises from the deep within him—“Halla Bol”.

The problem with Halla Bol, beyond everything else, is that it fails to trace any of the transformation in its protagonist. He was a clean likeable guy who suddenly goes from white to black to make it big in Bollywood and then reverts back to Ariel white after downing a drink in his SUV. Devgan despite raising his eyebrows in every possible direction cannot brood his way out of this half – hearted characterization.

It is only Pankaj Kapur who shines bright and breathes fire into the role of a man who stands tall—and solitary—in the shifting sands of time and loyalties. Vidya Balan has very little to do but she should seriously do a re-think of what she wants to do with her acting career. Play maudlin in yet another man-dominated movie or sign films like Khoya Khoya Chand. The less said about the music (Sukhvinder Singh) the better while Nataraja Subramanian’s camerawork is strictly functional.

First Family and now Halla Bol, hope Santoshi doesnot leave us with tareekh pe tareekh…

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