Bank Chor Movie Review

Riteish Deshmukh has tried to get away from his sex-comedy image recently by going on a B spree (signing films that have titles starting with B – Banjo, Bangistan and now Bank Chor). This time he’s been roped up by Y films for this movie which was previously supposed to be Kapil Sharma’s debut film. The marketing campaign has been very hatke but does the movie offer something different?

Story: Champak (Riteish) has come with two of his friends-turned-robbers Gulab and Genda (Vikram Thapa and Bhuvan Arora) to loot a bank in Mumbai. But they’re so incompetent that even the bank customers start referring to them as 3 Idiots. A stern CBI officer called Amjad Khan (Viveik Oberoi) is sent to counter them. However in the first of the film’s many twists it is revealed that the real thief is someone called Jugnu (Sahil Vaid). There’s also a TV reporter called Gayatri Ganguly (Rhea Chakraborty) who also gets involved. The film takes a turn for more mystery when it is revealed that Jungu might not be the real thief afterall.

Review: It is difficult to slot Bank Chor into either the comedy or thriller genre. The first half sticks to comedy but the second half diverges into a thriller. Bumpy, the director, tries his best to imbibe the film with pop culture references but it doesn’t turn out the way he may have envisioned it to. Bank Chor takes a lot of time to fully liven up, but even then it is not the fastest movie. There are boring patches in between the moments where action occurs. Bank Chor actually had potential to turn into a cult classic of sorts like 99 has become recently. But it falls short, way short.

Bank Chor looks its budget. It doesn’t look like a lot has been spent on the movie and the production design is reminiscent of TV show sets. The costume design also reminds us of costumes that we see in plays. Shoddy effort all round. The background music is also nothing to write home about.

Acting: The only department where Bank Chor is redeemed is in the acting department. The actors rise above the material and the direction they’ve been given. Riteish Deshmukh is consistently funny and expresses as many emotions as he can through this clumsy behaviour. Viveik Oberoi’s role is very one dimensional and there’s literally nothing for him to do in the movie other than act stern. Vikram Thapa and Bhuvan Arora are unusually cast but they do well in their respective roles. Rhea Chakraborty is decent in her insignificant role. Sahil Vaid steals a lot of his scenes and brings a psychotic flavour to his role.

Conclusion: Bank Chor had potential to turn into a solid cult comedy thriller but falls short of greatness by quite a big margin. If you’re in the mood to be mildly ruffled from your sleep with occasional doses of laughter then Bank Chor is the film could watch before the big release next weekend. Jerry Seinfeld said that writing comedy is a darn hard job and movies like Bank Chor prove this. If you want substance in your movie, then it is best to steer clear of Bank Chor.

Pros:

  • Riteish Deshmukh and Sahil Vaid
  • The premise and characters are funny
  • Twists are actually surprising

Cons:

  • Comedy doesn’t work
  • Too many boring patches
  • The actors have mostly been given one dimensional characters
  • The production design and costume design is amateurish
  • The music is nothing to write home about

Rating: ★★☆☆☆

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10 Comments

  • Have a inner feeling very soon Sir Akshay Kumar will eventually become King of Low budget B grade movies like all his previous and next upcoming. Apart from Tollywood 2.0 all the rest are B grade films. I wonder why he did not get the role of Vivek. At least its good to ignore money sometimes ,no Akki paji?

  • This year only Salman next year only Salman though TOH will be his only closest contender if not 2018 another smooth victory year for bollywood biggest Megastar.

  • A review as insipid as the movie itself … “potential to become cult classic review” but falls very very short

  • Nice review @indicine. I will still be watching Bank CHOR today. Need to spices up my weekend with laughter.

  • Superb trailer.. masterstroke step by madhur bhandarkar at recent time as every one knows that current modi sarkar is also working as the shadow of indu sarkar.
    NDTV was bashed every opposition is bashed and gud politician like kejriwal is singly bashed as he always speaks against modi monoply politics or centralization of politics

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