Borbaad (Bengali) Good action, weak performances

Music: Arindam Chatterjee

Cast: Bonny Sengupta, Ritika Sen, Mainak Banerjee, Sudip Mukhopadhyay, Tulika Basu and others

By Shoma A. Chatterji

Raj Chakraborty is a talented young director who can make creative use of new actors and often, technical crew also. Therefore, one wonders what makes him fall back on making Bengali adaptations of Southern hits to prove his box-office value as a successful film-maker. Borbaad meaning ‘wasted’ is also a Bengali adaptation of the Tamil film Polladhavan (2007) starring Dhanush.
The story of Borbaad is about Joy (Bonny Sengupta) whose sole aim in life is to own a bike and make his pretty girlfriend (Ritika) ride pillion all the time. His value system is rather distorted because he forces his father to part with money to start a business of his own but goes ahead and buys a bike with the money. His poor parents are shocked but that does not deter him in the least. However, strangely, the same Joy makes revenge his sole aim when the younger brother (Mainak Banerjee) of the local goon (Sudip Mukhopadhyay) pushes his father roughly on the streets. Joy changes from a happy-go-lucky, selfish young man into one bent on destroying those connected to his father’s public humiliation.
After the first half, the film turns to action and violence in a big way and the narrative picks up speed. The editing and cinematography of the action scenes are credible and good but what fails the film miserably is the performance of the romantic lead portrayed by Bonny and Ritika. When it comes to emoting, Bonny is wooden and lacks screen presence. Ritika does little else but smile sweetly and stand at bus stops waiting to be picked by her admirer Bonny. This does not work either in terms of action, execution or content. Ritika has practically nothing to do except wear designer suits, waiting at bus-stops or go pillion-riding with her good-for-nothing boyfriend.
Sudip Mukhopadhyay gives a sparkling performance as the Muslim mafia leader with a conscience and values of his own. Mainak, as his villainous younger brother, is good but has the tendency to go out of control unless held in a leash. The music is okay. The film stands on its own for the action parts though there is a lot of liberty taken with logic. With the film running reasonably well, Borbaad should go down among the not-so-good films under the directorial baton of Raj Chakraborty