Looking at the trailer and its bad film vibe, you could easily be mistaken about Tigmanshu Dhulia’s intention. Maybe he is doing what Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez did with Grindhouse by paying tribute to the kind of exploitative action films that play at the Grindhouse cinema halls?
Unfortunately NO.
Dhulia here is not paying tribute to the B movie in his own distinctive style. He is announcing himself to be a B movie maker with Bullett Raja . Or maybe he tried tribute but has been unable to lend this an iota of creativity or class.
This unabashed exhibition of the “Brahmin might” and frequent reiteration and glorification of caste is in very bad taste especially because politics or caste here is employed to say “Don't mess with us”.
Words like “political commando” and “system” are thrown in to make it seem like an intellectual political film but none of it really matters to the age-old plot of the hero avenging the death of his friend. A random friendship quickly established earlier on in the film suddenly blossoms to Sholay -esque intensity for no rhyme or reason except well, for staging gun fights and action sequences.
The actors all try to talk in punchlines like they are in a Rowdy Rathore movie and there is a little influence of Anurag Kashyap’s brand of quirks. But with the jarring blend of sensibilities and many attempts of trying to pass off larger-than-life action as realism, the plot is lost in unrelenting pointless rounds of gun fire.
Saif looks truly lost trying to fit in, Jimmy Shergill dies happily halfway glad he doesn't have to endure it till the end and Sonakshi looks like she can’t remember which movie shoot she showed up for but plays along anyway. And Vidyut Jamwal comes in and does his thing. Stunts.
Bullett Raja is so boring it could put you to sleep... but then the damn noise wouldn't let you.
Bullett Raja
Genre: Action
Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia
Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Sonakshi Sinha, Vidyut Jamwal, Ravi Kishen, Gulshan Grover, Raj Babbar
Storyline: Two friends. One dies. The other avenges
Bottomline: Yawn!
