I know the famous adage goes, ‘When you elect a clown, expect a circus’ But watching Bhai Tera Star Hai made me realise how the adage applies the other way too — When you go to a circus, you expect a clown. Now, how could anyone blame a circus for having clowns, even if they are a bit too many to count?
Raghav Juyal starrer Bhai Tera Star Hai, which arrives in theatres this Thursday, is one of the wackiest Hindi films I have seen in a long time — and that’s both a compliment and critique. Co-written and directed by Vivek B Agrawal, the film tells the story of — well, too many people. But primarily, it focuses on Ajay (Raghav Juyal), a struggling actor who must pay off his debts to a local pub owner Fatty (Sanjay Kapoor) who moonlights as a betting racketeer. Entangled with his life are many others who have their own little struggles going on, too messy for a brief synopsis here.
Cast: Raghav Juyal, Niharika NM, Vivan Bhatena, Sanjay Kapur, Niki Walia, Barkha Singh, Vikalp Mehta, Chandan Roy Sanyal
Directed by: Vivek B Agrawal
Besides the overarching slapstick tone, the makers are clearly aiming for a distinctive style. Possibly because they have nothing else to hold on to. The entire film is stitched together to look like one seamless cut, as the story zigs and zags around London, only to find resolution in a noisy police station which has plenty of tolerance for loudmouths. The single-take scenes’ gimmick works for a while and keeps us amused, until it doesn’t. There are too many quirky characters in this universe, and despite its staging, the narrative doesn’t revolve around Ajay’s antics, as much as it tries to. In this crowded, lunatic world, these characters and their tragicomic dilemmas becomes too many to count and too much to handle.
Some of the scenes work — the Mandy-Fatty altercation is hilarious, for instance — but the proceedings get tiring after a point. This wacky experiment largely falls apart because there is no one we are rooting for, underneath the larky playout. A sweet montage towards the end, where all the characters exchange sweet nothings, only reminds us that even a comedy like this eventually needed an emotional anchor, and writers who know how to blend mayhem, mirth, and schmaltz.
The actors cannot be faulted to any extent, though. They had evidently one brief — ‘There are no rules, no brakes’ — and most of the cast members commit to the madness. Raghav Juyal especially pulls off some moments of pure instinctive greatness, brimming with conviction. Niki Walia is a refreshing surprise, playing Mandy, the exasperated wife of a timid bar owner who is not a good-enough husband despite his good intentions. Vikalp as JD manages to match Raghav’s energy in few portions, while others fall short. Among the rest, it’s only Chandan Roy Sanyal who catches the pulse of this script, and does it justice. His moments with Raghav's Ajay are some of the funniest bits in the film, even though his character arrives a little too late.
In another puzzling choice, there is abundant use of graphics and animations. Often, dialogues appear as eye-catching graphics on screen, even as we can hear the characters say the exact same lines. In some scenes, these graphics are used to underline a character’s reaction or their thoughts which don’t get a place in dialogue. In other words, it’s a comic-book like treatment for an adult audience. Like for most other elements of the film, Bhai Tera Star Hai goes for the overkill with these graphics too, desperate to draw our attention in some way. The music effects from TikTok don't help, and the noise and the relentlessness gets to you after a point.
This is not a spoiler by any means, but Bhai Tera Star Hai literally ends with three promotional songs back to back. After a point, I turned to my friend, and said, “Will this ever get over?” That cannot be a good thing about a movie ever, if you want it to end that badly — unfortunately Bhai Tera Star Hai overdoes it, even by its own outlandish standards.