Banjo:
Riteish's Solo-Hero Outing Fizzle!
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Reviewer’s
Thumb Mark
Ravi Jadhav's
Bollywood directorial debut Banjo fails to enthuse the audience full scale. Riteish
Deshmukh tries hard to hold on solely till the end to give his audience a fair
deal but succumbs to poor story line, haphazard sequences, and a misfit heroine
(Nargis Fakhri) who fails to complement his acting skills. Banjo had all the
potential to be a fabulous musical treat laced with the story of a bunch of street
musicians who make to the world stage with original and credible music due to
sheer grit, commitment, passion and focus. It could have been truly
motivational and an inspiring story about a girl who travels from New York to
cherry pick some raw talents to polish them into gems to present to the world. It
could have showcased the power of music that can bind the world together
irrespective of its color, creed, religion, and culture. Well, it's unfortunate
to say that Banjo that evoked high expectations through its trailers and
posters fails to fulfill what it promised. It terribly missed an opportunity.
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Banjo is about four
slum dwellers: Taraat (Riteish Deshmukh) is an extortionist under the aegis of
a corporator, Grease (Dharmesh Yelande) is a car mechanic, Paper (Aditya Kumar)
is a paperboy, and Vajaya (Ram Menon, accompanies his father to small musical
shows). These four friends apart from their trade to earn a living they also bond
together on music as a ragtag band who play at different festive events organized
by individuals and local slum committees. In one such event they are heard by a
sound recordist Mikey (Luke Kenny). Mikey impressed by their talent sends the glimpses
of the show to his dear friend Christina (Nargis Fakhri) in New York. Christina
an Indian American musician is highly fascinated by their music and decides to
come to India to make two music tracks to participate in an upcoming
international music competition.
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The film is botched
due to unwanted subplots, builder-corporator nexus, extortion, Pseudo NGOisms
and poorly portraying slum dwellers as women oglers. Banjo's lyrics by Amitabh
Bhattacharya and music by Vishal-Shekhar
are the only relief we get as audience. But
then it is better to watch its music videos on YouTube or on Television rather than
spending your money in a theatre. As the lead protagonish Taraat says
repeatedly in the film - "Zindagi mai do choices hoti hai...", I
would also like to quote that Banjo gives us two choices : One, to watch and
forget it forever and two, not to watch it. Go for your choice, it's a free
world.
Life
Connoisseur Movie Rating: 1.5/5
Cast:
Riteish Deshmukh (Taraat), Nargis Fakhri (Christina), Darmesh Yelande (Grease),
Aditya Kumar (Paper), Ram Menon (Vajaya), Luke Kenny (Mikey)
Genre:
Musical
Drama
Director:
Ravi Jadhav
Producer:
Krishika Lulla
Written
by:
Kapil Sawant, Nikhil Mehrotra, Ravi Jadhav
Music
by:
Vishal-Shekhar
Choreography: Bosco-Caeser
Production
Company: Eros International
Distributor:
Eros International
Release
Date: 23rd September, 2016
Duration:
138 Minutes
Language:
Hindi
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