Cast: Shahid Kapoor , Anushka Sharma , Meiyang Chang , Vir Das
Written & Directed by: Parmeet Sethi
There's a longish sequence in an American eatery in the second-half of the film where Shahid Kapoor's Karan, by now on the road to seemingly irredeemable moral degeneration, is told by his partner (played by newcomer Vir Das) that he wants out.
The way that sequence progresses and the way the actors have preformed makes you forgive all the excesses of inflated self-worth that the script suffers from.
‘Badmaash Company’ is a film that is too smart for its own good. The film is about four friends bonded by the collective will to grow rich overnight who go through a series of caper experiences. Not all of it is convincing or even interesting. After a point, we know exactly where this quartet is hurling to. And the slide out of moral degeneration is never touching enough to make us shed a tear for these misguided over-reachers.
The doom comes none too soon, and then the narrative proceeds without a proper graph. By the time Karan (Shahid Kapoor)'s spunky girl Bulbul (Anushka Sharma) leaves him, the script begins to look like one of those subverted morality tales from the house of the Bhatts where the heroes talk with clenched fists and heroines weep in their pillows as their companions come home in a drunken stupor.
We've been here before. But wait.
There is a sense of the predictable and yet the unpredictable in the storytelling. Debutante director Parmeet Sethi's screenplay is one of those things that you want to believe merely because it sounds so smart on paper.
The climax about colour-bleeding shirts being sold to America as the Next Best Thing is much too far-fetched to work even as a part of a con caper.
Nonetheless "Badmaash Company" has a lot going for itself. The first-half when Karan meets Bulbul, Zing and Chang to create an instantly materialistic energy, gets you interested in these out-of-control lives.
Shahid Kapoor pitches in another perfectly poised and subtle performance even though his character's graph gets blurred towards the end. You can't stop caring for Karan's character because Shahid doesn't let go of his centre even when the narrative gets shaky.
Anushka Sharma in a stunning makeover conveys her character's spirit and spunk through her well-toned body language and that twinkle in the eye.
Vir Das as the film buff with a roving eye negotiates his character with gentle care. Here's one actor who knows what he's doing even when his character doesn't. And Meiyang Chang as the alcohol guzzling Gangtok-guy seems made for his character.
‘Badmaash Company’ is an extremely smart and smart-looking film. But its sassy all-knowing tone cannot hide a certain bankruptcy of genuinely inventive ideas.