Inspiration lacking confidence. Review on Banjo

An inspirational film for ‘Banjo’ lovers and strictly for'Banjo' lovers.

This film will disappoint the pan India crowd while satisfying only a select few Maharashtrian crowd.  The film is crude with uninspiring and outdated script. There is nothing in the film you have not seen before except mockery of sincere performances which greatly failed in its objective.

Story: Taraat(Ritesh Deshmukh) is a renowned goon in Mumbai carrying out extortion at the behest of his Godfather – a local politician.  He is also a skilled ‘Banjo’ player who is assisted by his three friends that includes Grease(Dharmesh Yelande) - a drummer.  Their performance during a Ganpati festival is captured by a foreigner in Mumbai who relays it to Chris(Nargis Fakhri) in New York. Chris wishes to participate in a Music Festival in the USA and is supposed to contribute with two songs in as many months. She visits Mumbai to hunt the ‘Banjo’ players and to create two exceptional songs with original music – no copy. Her effort bears fruit and in the process Taraat and his band hit stardom. However, it is short-lived as Taraat’s notorious past steals away the hard earned glory.  The ensuing drama is predictable making you realize you have just flushed your hard earned money down the drain.

Cast performance: Ritesh Deshmukh has great acting skills that goes into the core of the character and hence delivers. Nargis Fakhri has a long way to go to prove her acting skills and her performance was passable. Dharmesh Yelande’s performance was sincere in a supporting role. Rest of the cast selection was apt but the uninspiring script dented their performance.

Songs: Except for ‘Udan Choo’ which had good visuals and endurable music and lyrics, rest of the songs will drain you.

Pros: The film does provide inspiration in bits to struggling singers, musicians and artists in various fields to have a bigger picture of success in life. The entire cast gave a sincere performance. Nargis Fakhri's outbursts with string of bad words in Marathi was worth watching. Cinematography and fight choreography was satisfactory.

Cons: The film fails in its attempt to internationalize ‘Banjo’ or to make the characters shine with the fancied musical instrument. The script is unconvincing and fails to enthuse the audience. Most of the good scenes are already captured in trailers which does not leave much for the viewer to be engaged till the end.  There were too many unnecessary close-ups and shaky camera techniques used which was not only annoying but exposes the director’s attempts to hide his inefficiencies. One may find the screenplay silly, predictable and boring.

Direction: Ravi Jadhav may have been a successful director of Marathi films but he definitely lacks the skills to match the caliber of good Bollywood Directors. He executed the faulty script in a style best known to him and which can only succeed locally - within Maharashtra.

Conclusion: ‘Banjo’ could have been an inspiring film but fails miserably. The film had few good scenes especially where relationships were sustained by overlooking follies. Struggling artists were inspired to dream of a bigger picture but in a manner unconvincing to the viewer.  ‘Banjo’ was not an eagerly awaited release nor does it provide any value for your time and money, hence it would be wise to give it a skip.