Banjo Review

After last week’s Aniruddha Roy Choudhury who debuted with Pink, another acclaimed regional director Ravi Jadhav makes his foray into Bollywood with this week’s Banjo. The promos have promised a fun, dramatic movie based on music and a band with a high Mumbai connect. Is the movie any good? How is Riteish Deshmukh as a solo lead?

Story: Taraat (Riteish) plays Banjo in his part time when he is not busy extorting money as a Henchman. He is a part of a Banjo band that is quite talented but never gets the due recognition. Things seem to turn around when NY based DJ Christina (Nargis) finds out about them and want to collaborate with them. She lands in Mumbai and is assigned Taraat as her guide, but it takes a long time for her to figure out that he is the Banjo player she came to Mumbai looking for. Amidst all this, there’s an added layer of rival Banjo bands, music moguls and even evil builders. How does it all culminate? Watch the movie to know.

Screenplay and Direction: Ravi Jadhav, who has made laudable Marathi films like Natarang, Time Pass, Balak Palak sadly falters with this Hindi film. The effort to make a good film and give due recognition to the street music players is evident but when the movie falters as a movie, the effort doesn’t count for as much as it should. The dialogues are too heavy handed, the pacing is way off and twists that are visible from a mile away are given too much importance and stretched to eternity. Banjo is languid, and the extra characters/subplots just add an unnecessary drama to this well meaning movie.

Banjo has clearly been shot by Ravi Jadhav with the intention of showing the beauty of the rawness of the slums and chawls of Mumbai, and it does quite a good job at that. The music scenes are pretty realistic as well. The cinematography and production design has to be credited for that. But the editing is sub-par. Banjo has no business being almost 140 minutes long when the story could have been told with a greater impact in 120 minutes. The music of Banjo is high paced and matches the tone of the Banjo band. The romantic ballad is a nice track too.

Banjo Movie Review

Banjo Movie Review

Acting: Riteish Deshmukh rises above the film. He is brilliant in his role as he brings the character of Taraat alive with his emotive expressions and behaviour. He gives it his best shot. Nargis Fakhri plays a NY based girl and she plays it to her best level. She’s a NY girl herself and she knows how to play one too. Thankfully, the role doesn’t demand too much from her. Others like Dharmesh, Aditya Kumar, Luke Kenny all do well in their respective parts

Conclusion: The well-meaning nature of Banjo cannot be debated, but that means nothing when the movie doesn’t entertain as much as it should. And it is unpardonable when a movie gets boring. Riteish Deshmukh is in great form and gives it his all, but the movie itself stretches on for 20 minutes too long. Having said that, the director Ravi Jadhav has a good track record and Banjo should be considered nothing more than a temporary setback. We would be interested in seeing what he does next.

Pros:

  • Riteish Deshmukh is in brilliant form
  • The musical scenes are realistically shot
  • The production design and cinematography is good

Cons:

  • Banjo gets boring as it stretches it on for 20 minutes too long
  • Quite a few scenes are unnecessarily added
  • The twists don’t surprise as much

Rating: ★★½☆☆

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20 Comments

  • ritesh is good actor he needs good director
    after ek villain he have to chosse some thing new excited roles
    all knows that ek villain was hit only because of sradha and ritesh acting

  • Important thing is Pink will keep its good run continued. May even beat its weekend 1 collection in weekend 2. 60Cr+ highly possible now.

  • I haven’t seen the movie but I can assure u all it will be much better than our Haklu’s cult classic #PANKHA and Jadoo Boy’s #MOHINI KA JAADOOOOO
    Lulz to their fans
    :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

  • Ritesh Deshmukh wonderful actor he can do romance & comedy brilliantly . He was also awesome in Marathi film Lai Bhari . Ritesh & me from same city Latur . Laturkar man jinklat aapan aamche ( Laturkar u won our heart ) Waiting for Chatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Film . Ritesh aapla haath bhari , aaple lath bhari aaple saglech bhari . Jai Maharashtra .

  • who is fawad khan…dont have job in his ileterate country…no food nothing is there in pakistan ..no one in the world want to go there ..filled with terrorists…how can they be living in india when there country is making shameless attacks in india..shameless actors ..no backbone…should leave our motherland imideatly ..no one will go to watch him in adhm..all will go to watch ranbir an ash..will watch banjo today..

  • @Bhai Ek villain became a hit due to acting? It was a bumper opener and ritesh was no where in the trailer & songs so how can u even give credit 2 ritesh? Kuch bhi

    Sidharth was d star of Ek villain along with its music & his pairing with sradha.

  • dark boy
    September 23, 2016 at 3:16 pm
    And stop making these FAKE peace films like Bajrangi ,and ek that tiger,and so called TIGER zinda hai.
    This peace will be NEVER achieved.

    0 1
    anonymous
    September 23, 2016 at 3:20 pm
    Aisa krny sy kya farq pry ga .? Mzaa to tb aye ga jb dono movies b ban kr di jayein .. Ya dono movies mein sy Pakistani actors k scenes nikaal diye jayein .!

    0 0
    dark boy
    September 23, 2016 at 3:20 pm
    @javed reply to 1st comment – they don’t boycott our films they directly Ban it
    They banned even a light film like dishoom
    So think with your brain and not from your soft heart for pakistan

    0 0
    bhai
    September 23, 2016 at 3:22 pm
    all the adhm team have not said any about 18
    soldiers martyred
    because in there film there was fawad khan how
    i read the tweets of fawad khan mahira khan and mawara hoccane
    they earn money from india they live in india
    but e they havenot tweet about cowardly act of pakistan
    my only ques is why karan johar anushka ranbir Aishwarya have not said anything about our sahid soldiers
    were all the indians want revange

    0 0
    Romance Hai Mushkil
    September 23, 2016 at 3:23 pm
    Govt should take strict step on terrorists rather than harshing innocent artists n crickers very Sad politics destroying our country

    0 0
    Jagdish
    September 23, 2016 at 3:24 pm
    Pakistan deserve this.
    Pakistan crosse the limit of hypocrisy.
    Some morrons from bollywood are playing with emothons of Indian people by taking pakistani actors in movie.
    Has India lack of talent..?
    Are they forgot the sacrifieses given by our brave Indian Army Jawans..?
    Go to hell Pakistan.

    0 0
    KHILADI
    September 23, 2016 at 3:32 pm
    Your comment is awaiting moderation.

    @xedon, neutral venue and javed. I know that u all r commenting from Pakistan. MC BC if u have guts in ur ass then just tell ur gov to do just 1 more attack. Pak ko cheer ke rakh denge. Nawaz sharif ke toh bamboo kardenge. Tum log agar mile toh nanga karke kutta banake maarunga. Hum chahen toh ISLAMABAD mein 1hr ke andar wahan naashta kar sakte hain. I am in the air force that is y I know. JAI HIND. 1like =I salute to the Indian soldiers who lost their lives.

  • Guys, plz stop fighting. All Pakistanis are’nt bad, they r also humans like us. Fawad Khan did’nt killed those 18 martyrs so stop showing unnecessary hatred to him.

  • Well good movies do perform well in Pakistan. Sultan made 23 crore Indian rupees from just 60 screens and bajrangi bhaijan also performed well and top five film on box office. So don’t blame a common Pakistani. You shouldn’t expect any country to allow any movie to be released which is against it.

  • @Khiladi : Naashta Islamabad leke jaayega ki wahan jaake baanayega ? Banane mein hi 1 ghanta lagey gaa aur Jo banane wale hongey unko toh tum maar do gey. FYI… I am an India, don’t talk non sense just for sake of it. Talk something which is Practical.

  • Every Human is a Human…Is not about India or Pakistan or any other country..Just because a section of terrorist attacks other country…We can’t blame innocent people who didn’t even know their country terrorist attacks other country…So have some common sense..

  • Guys ! Guys guys!!! Do you know this:

    2010- SALMAN Bhai
    2011- SALMAN Bhai
    2012-SALMAN Bhai
    2013- Aamir khan
    2014- Aamir Khan
    2015- SALMAN Bhai
    2016- SALMAN Bhai
    2017- SALMAN Bhai

    Break That record!!! No Actor in history has 3 consecutive HGOY ….I don’t know if any one has two 3 consecutive HGOY!!

  • @neeraj, how the hell u know that Salman will give highest grosser in 2016 and 2017??? 2016 is yet to be over and 2017 has’nt even come. Are u an astrologer???

  • I love u @Ally … But you don’t need to be an astrologer!!! If you need more info watch indicine prediction!!!! Don’t worry like every dog has its day …SRK day may come….peace out

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