Bombay to Bangkok: Refreshingly Audacious review

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Do give Nagesh Kukunoor a fair chance, believe me it's a refreshingly audacious film that plays within the formula in order to break free from it, writes Bikas Mishra

After his last two rather mainstream films, Nagesh Kukunoor gets back to his indie roots and sticks to his good old strategy of subverting the formula from within. Bombay to Bangkok is a hilarious film that could alternatively be gruesomely persecuting if you fail to get into its grooves in the first ten minutes.

Look at the characters of the film: most interestingly a gangster forced into the profession by an authoritative dad. A don who had wanted to become a rapper but terrified by his "pappa" he lives a life of cross-connection with his deep seated desire to take revenge of his lost dream. A chef (rather a cook) who fakes a doctor and goes to Thailand in the quest of his lost treasure. Not only the characters but even the treasure (to be specific a pouch full of currency notes) is nothing less than a mockery of Bollywood epic sagas of treasure hunts. The exotic Thai Masseur, the love interest of our chef-on-run is a heroine devoid of our good old Hindi filmi sense of morality and ready to make people happy for money. The only stereotype Nagesh lets breathe in the film is Rash (played beautifully by Manmeet Singh), a good-hearted and light-headed sardar.

With these colorful characters Nagesh weaves a really fun-filled story. If you look at it, the skeleton is the good old Bollywood Masala, happy ending, where hero marries the heroine and leads a happy life ever after with kids. The villain is brought to the law and bad-ones with good hearts are reformed. However the strength of Bombay to Bangkok lies in its subversion of this oft-repeated story. His colorful characters, really whacky situations and to top it up a refreshingly new locale bring in fresh air.

Basic plot of the film seems to be a complete mockery of the very idea of plot. A gangster leaves a pouchful of currency notes in a restaurant, that lands in the hands of a chef. Chef runs away with the money to Thailand and is followed by the gangster. That's not all, there're a couple of sub plots as well. Apart from love story and gangster genres, Bombay to Bangkok has an element of suspense and detective genres as well.

Film has some really great comic moments, like when our chef fakes a doctor in Thailand, all the patients he gets to see want Viagra after doing a baring act. The final confrontation of our hero with the psychologist, who smells something fishy about him is again quite interesting with the references to Karamchand Jasoos and Sherlock Holmes. Even come to think of it, the idea of a gangster falling for a psychologist, who subsequently treats him for his suppressed desires is quite funny.

Bombay to Bangkok is an extremely humorous film, however go for it with an open mind. It's a film that takes characters from Hindi cinema and turns them around into something that might appear to be complete strangers. Try to patiently get into the film, if you don't like it in the first ten minutes you might end up hating Nagesh for what he's made. But do give him a fair chance, believe me it's a refreshingly audacious film that plays within the formula in order to break free from it.

[rating:2.5]