Quality cinema is an expectation that cinema-goers have from Ranbir Kapoor! The Heartthrob of Indian cinema has planned his career for nothing less than success with titles such as Rock Star (2011), Barfi! (2012) and one of 2013’s biggest Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani. Besharam is his worse film to date. We all have very high expectations from flicks that feature Ranbir Kapoor not only is his films box-office super hits or because he received Best Actor awards but merely because of the calibre of movies he presents. We were looking forward to an entertaining comedy featuring Ranbir with his parents the iconic Rishi & Neetu Kapoor who charmed audiences with their beautiful jodi in yesteryear cinema and added a dazzling element to Yash Chopra’s last tale of love Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012). The film as a whole was run-of-the-mill. It makes me wonder why the Kapoor would even sign a film of this nature. Dabbang (2010) was a great film by Abhinav Kashyap which raised the expectations from this film but failed to impress. It was like a case of Shakespeare’s appearance versus reality with this one. The plot is splintered and it fails to infuse the anticipated attractiveness in its story!
The story orbits around a good hearted orphan Babli (Ranbir) who has grown up to become a car thief and also runs a small business with his friend T2. He falls in love with Tara Sharma (Pallavi Sharda). Despite multiple attempts to woo his lady love, the man is rejected every time till he ends up stealing Tara’s newly bought Mercedes. For the first time he feels sore at a theft and is hell bent on returning her car back to her which leads him back to the infamous Hawala King Chandela. In the attempt to get the car back, he steals a bag full of the gangster’s money. Rishi and Neetu play a somewhat corrupt cop couple cutely named Chulbul & Bulbul Chautala who is easily persuade by the right bribe in aid of their retirement. The movie has a highly foreseeable plot using stereotypes of every kind which turned many elements cliché. The love story between Babli and Tara is unpersuasive as it doesn’t build up at all. Every time Rishi and Neetu appear on screen they manage to entertain.
The humour is deficient and erratic. The parts where you end up enjoying the most are Rishi and Neetu Kapoor’s sequences and by the end you are dissatisfied that they did not have as much screen time as you would have liked. It looks like Abhinav wanted to work with a plot that involved all three but his desires fall short. The plot was not great enough to accommodate the 3 Kapoor’s led to a waste of great talent and skill. The first half of the movie loose ended but the second half of the movie picks up. The music of the movie comes from Lalit Pandit who is the part of the 90s famed Jatin-Lalit duo adds some soul to this film with ‘Tere Mohalle’which is a sungeeth night also ‘Love ki Ghanti’ and ‘Be Besharam’. The costume designer added a great element of fun to this film with the bright and vibrant colours.
The film has many shortcomings but Ranbir Kapoor fans should go out and watch this film. The superstar is an actor par excellence for such ordinary masala entertainers and that’s been proven in his previous movies. It is evident that Kashyap did not have a proper vision for an actor of Ranbir’s calibre which is rather sad as this could have been a powerhouse of talent both behind the camera and onscreen. It was enjoyable seeing Ranbir with his mom and dad on screen and would love to see them together onscreen but in a more sophisticated film. On a whole Besharam is watchable but not impressive. The Bollywood Tempest gives Besharam a mere 5/10.