It’s quite natural to have some thought about a film as you exit the theatre. If it’s good, you gush and tell your people that your money was well spent. If it’s bad, you trash the film, lament that so much time of your life got wasted. And then there’s Bhai Tera Star Hai, a film which only makes one think: Why?
Event Context
I was left utterly baffled as this film unfolded in an almost empty theatre. The only other audience was a couple, who wisely retreated to the last row, perhaps hoping distance would somehow improve the experience.
The story follows Ajay (Raghav Juyal), who owes money to Fatty (Sanjay Kapoor), a bar owner. He gives him an ultimatum: repay the debt before the night is over. Tagging along with Ajay is JD (Vikalp Mehta), Fatty’s employee. Running parallel is another track involving Sid (Vivaan Bhathena), who is on a mission to recover money he lent to his exes, with his friend Laila (Barkha Singh) joining the adventure. Throw in a bunch of relatives and supporting characters who drift in and out with little purpose, and you have the film’s entire setup. What follows is the rest of the plot, if one can call it that.
The performances
The performances do little to salvage matters. Raghav Juyal, who delivered such good work in Kill and The Ba***ds of Bollywood, is strangely a let-down here. His acting is pitched at an exhausting volume. Vikalp Mehta as JD, on the other hand, offers potential. Niharika NM is here for only that one rehashed Hindi song going viral on social media; she has very little to do acting-wise. Sanjay Kapoor does what he always does in pretty much every character he plays. Niki Walia as the hysterical wife of Fatty does inject some energy into her scenes.
Overall, even the most absurd comedies work when there’s a method to the madness. Bhai Tera Star Hai mistakes the madness for the method. The screenplay is content-throwing characters into bizarre situations, assuming the randomness alone will generate humour. It doesn’t. Instead, what unfolds is a noisy film that tests the audience’s patience far more than their funny bone. When the credits roll, relief outweighs amusement.
Match Outlook
The biggest problem is that Bhai Tera Star Hai never seems to know where it wants to begin, what it wants to say, or how it plans to end. Scenes simply happen, and the narrative moves from one disconnected episode to another without building momentum or offering any payoff.
The first half begins with the promise of a tongue-in-cheek comedy about a man who fantasises that he’s a star. That’s exactly how the film was sold during its promotions. The problem is that one keeps waiting for this clever comedy to reveal itself. It never does. Bhai Tera Star Hai is many things, but an intelligent comedy is not one of them.
The second half does manage to squeeze in a handful of funny one-liners, but they help very little. Even by the end, it’s impossible to pin down what the film is trying to be. Is it a comedy of errors? A satire on stardom? The screenplay by Vivek B. Agrawal (also the director) and Sudipto Sarkar throws ideas at the wall with reckless abandon, hoping something will make you laugh. Nothing does. For example, the cop arresting Raghav’s character in London turns out to be his old acting teacher. It’s something that would have worked brilliantly had it been Govinda and Kader Khan playing these roles. Here, it leaves no impact.
The climax, in particular, descends into such noise that it feels less like a culmination and more like the writers simply gave up.
