Critic Turned Writer-Director Karan Anshuman's 'Bangistan' is a Good Idea, but the execution is average. Made with noble intentions, this satirical comedy, however, doesn't leave the impact it ought to have, due to not-so-strong writing.

'Bangistan' Synopsis: After being brainwashed by two extremists, an Indian & a Muslim, turn into suicide bombers & plan to execute a dangerous plan at a cultural event in Poland. But their ideologies change, as they learn the truth about religion & god.

'Bangistan' lacks sharp writing. The Screenplay by Anshuman, Puneet Krishna & Sumit Purohit, definitely is noble, but it isn't engaging enough. The protagonists are decently written, but their journey doesn't inspire much. There are some moments that work, but overall, the narrative isn't full-proof. Anshuman's Direction is amateurish. Cinematography captures the beautiful locales of Poland, nicely. Editing lacks sharpness. Ram Sampath's Score is good.

Performance-Wise Riteish Deshmukh is marvelous & the life of the show. He is sincere, affecting & absolutely believable in his portrayal of a man torn between racial discrimination & violence. Pulkit Samrat is over-the-top. Jacqueline Fernandez is wasted in a cameo, she looks great though. Kumud Mishra is excellent in dual roles. Chandan Roy Sanyal & Aarya Babbar don't work.

On the whole, 'Bangistan' is a half-baked fare.

One expects quality cinema from a guy who is a former film critic and who has a strong production backing, but after sitting through this piece of junk, I want to revisit the idea that film critics make good filmmakers.

Poking fun at popular international brands, ideologies, and stereotypes is what the film relies heavily on for humor from the beginning. That a fictitious country called Bangistan is torn between communal tension is a good base to make a satire. But the wagon which was supposed to hit the star looks like it has punctured all its tires, burst all its windows and windshield, and has swerved off road into a known yet unpleasant territory that is best described as moronic and highfalutin. Known, because this territory is already crowded with the Bollywood likes (Roy (2015),et al). Unpleasant, because, well, you know.

Two over-smart and over-sympathetic characters (Samrat & Deshmukh) are sent by their respective community leaders to Poland (for heck's sake) of Hindi speaking yet Polish lipping inhabitants to carry out a suicide bombing mission in an attempt to instigate international terror thereby disrupting harmony. Dialogs have been stolen from classic films, and if you were to subtract the steal from the total dialogs in the film, you will have a non-operational womb in your hand.

The biggest problem with the film is that its comedy is all single- layered, meaning a joke is introduced and is taken forward until it transforms into farce (and travesty) and into hogwash and then finally spirals into an abyss of dark nothingness. Editing and direction are in gutters, and so is the pretentious screenplay.

Basically, the whole film is Mr Anshuman's imagination, and when one imagines things, success is always a presumed by-product. Unfortunately, nothing works in reality; not even those indigenously made explosives that they use in the film. The songs ignite trepidation in its viewers and the music man is growling his way to get noticed. We get it, Mr Sampat, you can scream.

There is not an iota of sense in the film which could grip the audience, forget about hooking them. There is no insight into the actual theme of the film and with that sermon at the end, all goes downhill. The protagonists or the antagonists or the anti-heroes (it's all messed up) suddenly stop and introspect about their foolish actions and then we have a genre shift in the film, which is more unbearable than what preceded.

While Deshmukh looks confused, Samrat is the epitome of overacting. I checked my phone for three seconds and my neighbor notified me that I had missed Miss Fernandez. I was happier.

The plot holes are in millions, plus during a fight scene towards the end, all limits are crossed and one realizes that these two hours will never come back. The background score tries hard like a mother tries hard to teach her son to carve out a perfect cursive letter "f," but the result is a garbled product which looks like a pile of crap. And the whole drama ends with tears. Trust me, there will be tears. River of tears in the situation room of Excel Entertainment. For cryin' out loud, the expectations were higher because of Akhtar and Sidhwani on board, however the man at the wheel goes super retard.

When a rookie filmmaker uses Mozart's "The Marriage of Figaro" to weigh in the magnitude of a scene, one ought to know that there is nothing much to consider in the film. In the case of Bangistan, why don't you skip the word "much" from the previous statement? Ironically, to imagine that if the director was to again don the cap of a film critic one last time and review his own movie, the river of tears that I was talking about would turn into an ocean, all thanks to Mr Anshuman.

BOTTOM LINE: Bangistan can be best described in three Us - unimaginative, unfunny, and ugly.

VERDICT: No stars. Skip for life.

Can be watched with a typical Indian family? YES

As an idea it really feels exciting to assume a film about two amateurish suicide bombers from a fictitious (Indian) land, planning to sabotage a World Peace Conference held in Poland. And the excitement increases further when in this comic plot, the Hindu bomber poses as a Muslim and the Muslim one portrays himself as a Hindu, trying to fool the authorities and participants together. However as experienced many times before, the plot that looks like a killer one on the paper doesn't turn out to be anything even close to average or fairly enjoyable when transformed into a film unfortunately.

Beginning on a positive note, revealing the hidden secret behind every communal riot happening in the city, BANGISTAN commences as a political satire with all Indian characters in the script, but then slowly gets into the mold of a western comedy, unable to make any kind of substantial impact on the viewer due to more than one reason. Apart from all (unexpectedly) over the top performances, it has many weird sequences like a hotel room (in Poland) with a big hole in the roof connecting it with the upper floor, a goat brought in the same hotel for Eid without the owner's permission, an over- clever Hindi speaking taxi driver being the informer, the two Russian/Chinese eccentric bomb suppliers with their hidden laboratories and the two foreign police officers behaving like fools. The dialogues that ought to be the backbone of such message oriented satires, have been written pretty casually with only few enjoyable lines coming after long gaps.

Having a decent opening 15 minutes, the pointless script keeps progressing with all forced, supposed to be funny moments post interval too. And then it eventually comes to an end with a long, preachy unimpressive climax that is unable to convey any kind of social message of 'One Religion' to the viewers. In short, though director Karan Anshuman might have had all good intentions to make an entertaining comedy with a message of World peace, the film fails to deliver the same and disappoints badly. In other words, following a western pattern of satirical comedy featuring all Indian characters, BANGISTAN keeps hanging in between and remains far away from impactful attempts such as the recent FILMISTAAN and more.

In the performances, Ritesh Deshmukh tries his best but also looks like uninterested and unconvinced with the content throughout its two hours of duration. On the other hand, Pulkit Samrat puts in much more energy than required going over the top and so do the actors in the supporting cast, particularly the hamming Arya Babbar. Moreover its really confusing to see Jacqueline in such a poor role of a local waitress doing simply nothing in the film other than providing the glamour.

Summing up, BANGISTAN has a poor direction, below average soundtrack but a better cinematography that unsuccessfully tries to give a significant message of 'One Religion of the World' to its audience.

However mentioning its only merit, there is a thoughtful song coming towards the end with the lyrics,

"Mujhko Kuchh Bhi Pata Nahin Tha, Waqt Bada Hi Achha Tha, Mera Koi Dharam Nahin Tha, Jab Main Chhota Bacha Tha"