Shakun Kothari (Saif Ali Khan) is ‘the’ business tycoon and every stock trader’s wet dream. Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra), an aspiring moneymaker but lives with a conservative Farhan Qureshi’s kinda dad in Allahabad – sorry Mr. Adityanath, Prayagraj. Rizwan, along with his street-smart attitude & sky-high dreams reach Mumbai in order to make a name for himself.
Idolizing Shakun as god he meets Priya (Radhika Apte) who helps him in finding a job as a trader in a top firm. Relying heavy on emotions, he uses his brain to reach Shakun. Once their path intersects, the game of Brain vs Heart starts and how they make & break things is what the rest of the story revolves around.
I’m not at all saying Parveez Shaikh has penned this story after watching Wall Street (1978), I’m just saying how the basic premise of the whole master-disciple angle and how they stand against each other is already done. However, this is beautifully Indianised and every ‘desi’ ingredient works in the favour of the film. The spiritual angle kind of feels forced and adds nothing of substance to the feel.
Parveez Shaikh and Aseem Arora’s screenplay is tightly drawn during the major chunk of the film, yes it dips at certain places and that’s where things go out of hand. Swapnil Sonawane’s camera captures the essence of the stock market in a pretty satisfactory way. There are scenes where the entire set-up looks inauthentic but it’s cleverly covered by solid performances. The idea of building up a relationship between Saif & Rohan’s character and then bringing them face to face lacks depth.
Baazaar is one entertaining film laced with some superlative performances & refined direction. The concept of ‘make money’ will fantasize many but the movie has its own charm and style majorly because of ever-so-dashing Saif Ali Khan.
Rating: 7/10