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Bunty Aur Babli
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Wikipedia article
'Bunty Aur Babli' is a 2005 Indian Hindi-language crime comedy film directed by Shaad Ali and written by Jaideep Sahni, based on a story by Aditya Chopra, who serves as producer under the Yash Raj Films banner. The film stars Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji in the title roles, along with Amitabh Bachchan, marking the first motion picture starring the Bachchan father-son duo together. Bachchan Jr. and Mukerji play con-artist partners-in-crime, Bunty and Babli, while Bachchan Sr. plays DCP Dashrath Singh, whose focus is solely to catch them.
The soundtrack of 'Bunty Aur Babli' was composed by ShankarEhsaanLoy, with lyrics written by Gulzar and Blaaze together, and was released under the banner YRF Music. Released worldwide on 27 May 2005, 'Bunty Aur Babli' received positive reviews from critics and audience alike who praised it's music, screenplay, humour, performances and direction. The movie was a commercial success at the box-office, becoming the second highest-grossing Indian film of the year.
'Bunty Aur Babli' earned 8 nominations at the 51st Filmfare Awards including Best Film, Best Actor for Bachchan Jr., Best Actress for Mukerji and Best Supporting Actor for Bachchan Sr. and won 3 Best Music for ShankarEhsaanLoy, Best Lyrics for Gulzar and Best Female Playback for Alisha Chinai, the latter two for the song "Kajra Re". The film was remade in Telugu as 'Bhale Dongalu' (2008) starring Tarun Kumar and Ileana D'Cruz.
A sequel under the title of 'Bunty Aur Babli 2', starring Rani Mukerji, Saif Ali Khan, Siddhant Chaturvedi and Sharvari Wagh was released theatrically on 19 November 2021.
Plot
Rakesh Trivedi (Abhishek Bachchan) is from a small village named Fursatganj. His father is a ticket collector on a train and wants him to get into a similar occupation as well. However, Rakesh has big dreams; he is forever coming up with new business schemes and is convinced he will make it big one day. He adamantly refuses any notion that he will one day work in a 9-to-5 environment. Rakesh's father gives him an ultimatum go on the job interview he has arranged or get out of the house.
Vimmi Saluja (Rani Mukerji) is the daughter of a Punjabi family in another small village named Pankinagar; she spends her hours watching films and studying supermodels and dreams of becoming Miss India. However, Vimmi's parents tell her they have arranged her marriage to a young man with a decent job which she is not interested in.
Rakesh and Vimmi pack their bags and sneak out in the dark of night. They bump into each other at a train station and become friends after realizing their stories are similar. They support and encourage each other to achieve their dreams: Vimmi tries to enter the Miss India contest but gets thrown out after an argument. Rakesh tries to sell his ideas for an investment scheme, but a businessman turns him away. In fact, a man he had met at a restaurant stole ideas from Rakesh's presentation file and, when he enters the office, the interviewer states someone before he came in with the same idea. After finding out that the businessman who Rakesh had approached, used his idea to make money, he and Vimmi con him and take the money they believe is rightfully theirs.
Once they realize how easy it is to con people, they decide to run some more cons to raise money to make it to Bombay.
Unfortunately, they find the lifestyle too exciting to give up. Adopting the names of 'Bunty' and 'Babli', they successfully pull off con after con, looting the rich dressed as local guides, religious priests, health inspectors, business partners, etc. Their flamboyant antics make them famous in newspapers nationwide. Soon their friendship leads to romance and they decide to continue conning as husband and wife.
Little do Rakesh and Vimmi know that DCP Dashrath Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) is catching up with their cons, getting closer each day. He relentlessly pursues them across India in the hopes of putting them behind bars. To complicate matters, Rakesh and Vimmi have a child and, after a very close call eluding Dashrath, they decide to quit conning for their child's sake. This decision leads to their capture by Dashrath. While in custody, their heartfelt confessions and conversation soften the policeman's heart and he lets them go, certain he had destroyed Bunty and Babli's career as criminals.
Three years later, Dashrath rescues them from their mundane domestic lives by offering them to work for the nation thwarting the activities of other scammers.
Cast
* Amitabh Bachchan as DCP Dashrath Singh
* Abhishek Bachchan as Rakesh "Bunty" Trivedi
* Rani Mukerji as Vimmi "Babli" Saluja
* Raj Babbar as T. T. Chandra P. Trivedi, Bunty's father
* Talluri Rameshwari as Mrs. Trivedi, Bunty's mother
* Puneet Issar as Mr. Saluja, Babli's father
* Kiran Juneja as Mrs. Saluja, Babli's mother
* Pratima Kazmi as Phool Sakhi
* Prem Chopra as a Truck Driver
* Sanjay Mishra as Q. Q. Qureshi
* Brijendra Kala as Mehmood Bilal
* Ravi Baswani as a Hotel Owner in Mussoorie
* Virendra Saxena as Police Commissioner
* Yunus Parvez as a Hotel Owner
* J. Brandon Hill as Harry Epstein
* Tania Zaetta as Kate
* Anupam Shyam as Raj Kapoor Tiwari
* Rajesh Vivek as a Protestor
* Kunal Kumar as Newspaper Salesman
* Ranjeet as Showroom Manager
* Rajiv Gupta as a Police Inspector
* Shiamak Davar in a special appearance in song 'Nach Baliye'
* Marzi Pestonji as a background dancer in 'Nach Baliye'
* Shaad Ali in a guest appearance in title song
* Antara Biswas in a guest appearance in title song
* Lilliput as Band Trumpet Player
* Pankaj Tripathi as Sub-Inspector Jatayu Singh (behind Amitabh Bachchan)
* Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as a bar dancer (guest appearance)
* Sushant Singh Rajput as an uncredited background dancer behind Abhishek Bachchan in the song Nach Baliye
Reception
The film was a critical and commercial success, becoming the second highest-grossing Indian film of the year. Designer Aki Narula dressed Mukerji a new look Patiala salwars and kurtis, which became quite popular.
Influence
The glorification of crime in the movie inspired many people to emulate the glamorous couple, resulting in a trend of real-life Buntys and Bablis.One such case is that of Sushant and Kajal, a married couple who conned two businesses out of money using a photo frame. The Darjeeling-based couple did a 'Bunty Aur Babli'
Another case of the movie's influence on crime is that of another married couple, Suresh and Rekha. Their crimes also mirrored those committed in the film, and they admitted to committing the crimes they were accused of in a "'Bunty Aur Babli'" style.
Yet another couple, a sister and brother-in-law, were caught for crimes that mirrored those committed in the film. Shahnaaz Bano and Sajid Ahmed were caught smuggling and shoplifting diamonds and other expensive merchandise out of stores, using disguises.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack was composed by the musical trio ShankarEhsaanLoy and was released on 13 April 2005 by Yash Raj Music. Initially, A. R. Rahman was approached to compose the film's music, having worked on Ali's previous film 'Saathiya' (2002), but he declined due to his date issues. The lead actors Abhishek Bachchan and Rani Mukerji danced to the tunes of the album. The lyrics were penned by Gulzar and Blaaze. According to the Indian trade website 'Box Office India', with around 19,00,000 units sold, this film's soundtrack album was the year's second highest-selling.
Track listing
Lyrics by Gulzar except where noted.Reception
The music of 'Bunty Aur Babli' received positive reviews from critics. Sukanya Verma of 'Rediff', said in her review, "On the whole, the music of 'Bunty Aur Babli', with its over-the-top, uninhibited, rustic and teasing spices, makes for one helluva musical masala." 'Planet Bollywood's' review concluded, "Overall, Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy do an excellent job of getting different singers for each track, trying to infuse different beats together and creating an album worth buying. Itll take a few listens to pick your favourites, but its fresh and an above-average album to own. Enjoy!" "'Bunty Aur Babli' does not contain your routine Yash Chopra genre of music that are choreographed around the meadows and Swiss alps. They are more of situational rhythmic tracks that take a story forward" Joginder Tuteja of 'Bollywood Hungama' said in his review. 'Glamsham' was full of praise for the lyrics by Gulzar, "Throughout this zany, zingy and zippy album, the 70-year-old Gulzar imbues a youthfulness that comes from being young at heart. Indeed that's the quality, which flows freely out of this album. You can't miss its zest for life or its lunge towards a luscious nirvana obtained from looking at life through rose-tinted glasses." Avijit Ghosh wrote in 'The Telegraph', "In essence, 'Bunty Aur Babli' is an on-the-road flick about a boy and girl in search of fun and freedom rather than a story of two cons. To capture the splintered yearnings of smalltown India which watches Aastha channel in the morning and FTV at night is a difficult and ambitious task. But like his protagonists, director Ali pulls it off. Bravely. Almost."Legacy
"Kajra Re" was voted as the best of 2005 overwhelmingly by listeners of 3 radio stations catering for South African Indians.Hidekaz Himaruya, the manga artist who created Hetalia, embedded the video of "Dhadak Dhadak" on his blog around Christmas time, which caused a sudden influx of Himaruya fans commenting on the video.
Accolades
Sequel
In December 2019, Yash Raj Films announced a sequel, 'Bunty Aur Babli 2', to be directed by Varun V. Sharma and produced by Aditya Chopra. The film stars Saif Ali Khan, Rani Mukherji, Siddhant Chaturvedi and debutante Sharvari Wagh as the leads, and was scheduled to be released on 26 June 2020, but postponed due to COVID-19 pandemic. It released theatrically on 19 November 2021. Although the film is direct sequel and takes places after 16 years of the first film but the character of Bunty is portrayed by Saif Ali Khan replacing Abhishek Bachchan.
Notes
References
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