▶ Genre :- Musical Drama / Action
▶ Runtime :- 2 hours 20 mins
▶ Cast :- Riteish Deshmukh (Tarraat), Dharmesh Yelande (Grease), Aditya Kumar (Paper), (Vaajya), Nargis Fakhri (Chris), Luke Kenny (Mike).
▶ Plot :- Banjo is the regular underdog drama, in the music sphere wherein four young slum dwellers do odd jobs during the day and play impressive banjo at night. Their music falls on the ears of a DJ in New York (through her friend Mike, here in India) and she wishes to collaborate with them to get into a musical competition. She lands in Mumbai with a hope to find them and what follows, is a lot of predictable twists and turns.
▶ Direction :- Ravi Jadhav is a filmmaker whom we adore, for making Marathi films like 'Balak Palak' (2012) and 'Natarang' (2010), 'Time Pass', to name a few.
(Also 'Balgandharva', but i haven't seen it yet) He has a unique style of storytelling and that's what piqued our curiosity about this movie. And yes, he holds the direction department with much expertise. The life in the Worli slums has been beautifully showcased by Jadhav. Also, the festive Ganpati spirit is captured very well.
Unfortunately, his incursion into Bollywood with a musical drama doesn't hold up to our expectation.
▶ Script :- Jadhav fails to portray a fresh story even though the subject had so much potential. In its opening credits, the film mentions that it is a dedication to the street musicians all over, however, it completely loses its track after 20 minutes of screentime. Banjo begins on a promising note, but falls prey to the constraints of commercial cinema and plays safe by introducing stereotypical elements like a hero (a part time extortionist, here) with a golden heart, villains (a rival band, here) considering a sudden change of heart, some political / illegal land extraction shit and a love story (with emotions overflowing just from one side). *Sighs*
▶ Editing and Cinematography :- →Devendra Murdeshwar's editing is okay-ish. There were many unnecessary scenes that could've easily been edited out. Like, the rival band beating up one of the members of our band at the railway station, not once but twice.
→Manoj Lobo, as the cinematographer, does a brilliant job. His camera slides over the grit-laden streets and the agonised yet happening lives of the slum dwellers; and does the trick for the people who can’t face harsh realities with bare eyes.
▶ Music :- The music by Vishal-Shekhar is the best thing of this film. It hits all the right notes and has got all the grooves that'll leave us foot-tapping in the theatre. Except for ‘Pee Paa Ke’, which is completely irrelevant to ths context. Also, the picturization and feel of the songs are commendable. The background score is not too harsh and blends in perfectly.
▶ The Highs :-
➡ Have we ever glanced at the lads who passionately pound their drums in Ganpati processions, navratri pandals or desi marriages for that matter. Probably not. But this musical piece by Jadhav will make sure we stop and stare for a while, the next time we find any of them bands playing on the streets. We definitely will.
➡ The film touches upon interesting themes like the power of performing from one's heart over performing for one's supper and their desperation to gain respect in the eyes of the people.
But these beautiful ideas aren't formulate well, in the movie.
➡ The comic relief is better than expected. Although most of them were unleashed in the trailer, the gimmicks and the chemistry between the four men is a treat to watch.
➡ Dharmesh Yelande comes out as an excellent performer. He didn't quite get his space to dance here, but he managed to garner all the eye balls through his acting.
➡ The music score set up by Vishal-Shekhar puts life in this movie and partly becomes the reason we stay glued to our seats till the very end.
▶ The Lows :-
➡ Banjo would've been more intriguing had the movie concentrated more on the life of Tarrat (Riteish), and Banjo.
➡ The second half keeps dragging for no apparent reason. It would've been better without the repeated conversations and forced conflicts post interval. At one point in the movie, we get a Déjà vu of the 'ABCD' and 'Step up' franchise.
➡ They have also introduced multiple characters and many of them are completely irrelevant. For example, Chris' friend’s uncle played by Anand Ingle and the real estate owner Pamnani.
➡ Nargis Fakhri. Why? Why did you cast a model and not an actress as the leading lady? And now that you have, it's wrong on our part to expect any acting form her. So, we are genuinely sorry. *places hand on heart*
➡ There are some serious loopholes in logic in various scenes. One of them is when the band performs at a club and during the song, we can see all four members dancing.
*Eyes wide open*
Dude? It was a LIVE band show, right?
➡ Performances :-
▶ Riteish Deshmukh plays the lead singer and banjo player Tarraat, who is otherwise a drunkard and an extortionist. Right from the body language to the cockiness, Riteish blows life into the character and proves his mettle as an actor.
▶ Dharmesh Yelande, as Grease, is a surprise package. He nails it as the mechanic and the band's drummer. Also, he has a great screen presence.
▶ Aditya Kumar, as Paper, works as a newspaper boy when he isn't playing with the band. His only dream is to own a water tanker. And Aditya does justice to his character.
▶ Raja Menon, as Vaajya, plays shehnai with his father at marriages during the day, and is in awe of fearless Tarraat for the rest of the day.
- The characters of Paper and Vaajya have a realistic touch through which we learn about the simple dreams that the men from the slums are nursing. Sweet.
▶ Luke Kenny as Mikey not only looks impressive but also pulls off a decent role. His Marathi speaking dialogues are real fun to hear.
▶ Mahesh Shetty (TV Actor) has a negative role in the film. He does a fine job as far as the acting is concerned. But yes, we find a tinge of over acting in the emotional scenes but those can be overlooked considering the fact that he is from daily soaps. *chuckles*
▶ Nargis Fakhri or a "pair of lips" as she is fondly called, leaves a bad taste in our mouths right from her very first dialogue. It is painful to watch her speak Hindi. No doubt her way of emoting things has improved since Azhar. But you literally cringe when she showers her anger on her boss by using Hindi cuss words. Geez! Stop right there, lady.
▶ The actor who plays Corporator Patil in the film is also worth a mention.
▶ Veteran actor Late Janardan Parab (Deceased : April 02, 2016) played the character of Riteish's adopted dad. But he wasn't given enough screen time.
▶ Master Ishaan Khopkar is cute as the chaiwalla, who always takes a dig at the band members.
▶ Verdict :-
"Banjo" is an ambitious film that excels in music and drama but fails because of poor writing and shoddy editing. You may watch it if you got nothing else to do, this weekend.
▶ Ratings :- 2.5/5
🙏❤ PRIZMI TRIPATHI ❤🙏
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