Disney+ Hotstar’s Babli Bouncer stars Tamannaah Bhatia, Saurabh Shukla, Supriya Shukla, Sahil Vaid, Abhishek Bajaj and Priyam Saha. Directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, the director has co-written the story with Amit Joshi and Aradhana Debnath. The cinematography is by Himman Dhamija, and the editing is done by Manish Pradhan. Tanishk Bagchi and Karan Malhotra composed the music.
The movie is produced by Star Studios and Junglee Pictures. The runtime is of 117 minutes. The synopsis reads, “A first-of-its-kind for her village, Babli takes up a bouncer’s job to win over her love, leading to a series of funny and heart-warming events.”
Babli Bouncer Movie Review Contains Some Spoilers
In Madhur Bhandarkar’s Babli Bouncer, we meet Babli, who belongs to a village on the outskirts of Delhi. Vijay Raaz narrates the story stating that the men of this village are usually bodybuilders who work as bouncers in Delhi clubs. We meet Babli, the only bodybuilder woman in the village and witness her journey of becoming a bouncer.
The concept of a small village girl working as a bouncer in a Delhi club sounds quite empowering on paper. However, on the screen, it turned out to be a forced love story with no heart. The main reason for Babli to become a bouncer is a man! Yes, initially, she is a woman with no professional goal but to marry and have kids.
Babli becomes ambitious when she falls for her teacher’s son Viraj (Abhishek Bajaj). As Viraj stays in Delhi, Babli decides to work in Delhi. The luck is on her side as she gets a job as a female bouncer in a Delhi club. The entire driving force of the story is not Babli’s ambition, but her desire for a man. It just doesn’t make sense.
Babli is hardly serious about her work. The story never highlights the struggle of being a female bouncer in a male-dominated profession. Usually, in underdog stories, big challenges put a person to the test. In Bhandarkar’s story, Babli’s main challenge is the boy she thinks she’s in love with.
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Babli is also 10th fail. After things don’t go her way, Babli decides to change for the “better”. It’s ridiculous how a woman who’s shown so strong, witty, and fierce is so affected by a guy she hardly knows that she decides to change herself. We hardly see Babli being passionate about her job as a bouncer. It bothered me, considering the word bouncer is used in the movie title. While there’s a sequence where she saves a person, it’s just used to give us a happy ending.
Even though the film has negatives, some moments leave you in splits or warm your heart. Babli’s equation with her father, played by Saurabh Shukla, is heartwarming. Babli is truly funny, and credit goes to Tamannaah for playing such an eccentric character. Even though I struggled to understand the accent in the beginning, I could slowly catch up with it.
Bhatia has some hilarious scenes where she delivers a good performance. Her character was funny, notorious and colourful. However, the makers killed its charm by constantly reminding us that she’s funny, burps loudly, and eats a lot.
Himman Dhamija’s camera captures the beauty of the village that leaves us mesmerised. The club sequences are also captured well, giving us an idea that life in Delhi is hella colourful. Madhur has used several Bollywood songs like Ek Main Aur Ek Tu, Marjawa and others. The music of the movie, sadly, doesn’t strike a chord.
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Babli Bouncer Review: Final Thoughts
Overall, the Tamannaah Bhatia starrer, directed by Madhur Bhandarkar, has its moments. However, the story offers nothing new. We have seen better underdog stories where the heart and passion were in the right place – Gully Boy, Iqbal, Lagaan, etc. The Fashion director attempted to make us smile, which he succeeded at times. However, it’s not a story of women’s empowerment and upliftment if the character is driven towards her goals for and because of a man.
Watch Babli Bouncer on Disney+ Hotstar.
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