‘Besharam,’ a Bollywood Romantic Comedy
Babli is a lovable lout, a cocky car thief in Delhi with loud shirts
and the inevitable heart of gold. But that’s not enough for a Bollywood hero.
Babli’s also an orphan who gives his ill-gotten gains to the orphanage where he
grew up and still lives, sharing a bed with his sidekick, T2, as in “Terminator
2.”
Babli is a lovable lout, a cocky car thief in Delhi with loud shirts
and the inevitable heart of gold. But that’s not enough for a Bollywood hero.
Babli’s also an orphan who gives his ill-gotten gains to the orphanage where he
grew up and still lives, sharing a bed with his sidekick, T2, as in “Terminator
2.”
In “Besharam,”
a romantic comedy that takes time out for some tricked-up martial arts
fighting, Babli is played with I’ll-try-anything gusto by Ranbir Kapoor,
a dynastic star who has brought part of the dynasty along for the ride.
His father, Rishi Kapoor (son of the Great Showman Raj Kapoor), and mother, Neetu Singh (the former Baby Sonia), play a brawling Mr. and Mrs. — cops with hearts of gold (you doubted it?) beating under corrupt khakis.
“Besharam” means shameless, and this film,
directed by Abhinav Singh Kashyap, mostly is. In scenes with his
parents, Ranbir often delivers some variation on this idea: If I’m bad,
it’s because I had no mom and dad to guide me.
And the comedy skews low even when it
involves Bollywood royalty. We’re treated to multiple scenes of Rishi on
the potty, while Ranbir’s crotch is a magnet for the camera: Babli’s
signature move is a little pluck and adjust.
Shameless, though, doesn’t mean
undisciplined. “Besharam” is frequently crude, but it’s also unusually
clean in its plotting. And it has a kind of unblushing vitality that is
especially strong in the dance numbers, which feature big crowds, lots of color and an old-fashioned Bollywood desire to please.
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