Movie Review- Halla Bol

With 'Halla Bol' Rajkumar Santoshi has tried to re-create the magic of 1990s when a single-man war against the entire corrupt political system was there in every third movie, and sure enough Santoshi was successful in giving memorable films like 'Ghatak', 'Ghayal' and 'Damini'. 'Halla Bol' seems to be the next in the sequence of Santoshi's hard-hitting films, but nevertheless, it lacks the energy and compactness of his past films. The storyline goes as:

Ashfaque (Ajay Devgan), a small town boy aspiring to make it big in Bollywood works in a street theatre group run by a reformed dacoit Sidhu (Pankaj Kapur) which holds plays raising social and political issues to bring about an awakening in the masses. Ashfaque finally makes it to Bollywood with a new screen name – Sameer Khan. Once in Bollywood, he sheds his middle-class bearings and changes everything — values, ethics, attitude — along with his name. However, his wife (Vidya Balan) refuses to change and sadly and silently watches her husband's deteriorating values. It takes the murder of a young girl in a party to provoke his conscience and ferret out the old activist, Ashfaqe-ullah. Soon, Sameer is the one-man army against the battery of evil politicians, businessmen and cops who are hellbent on covering up the crime. His support in this battle is his old Guruji's: a firm, powerful and mesmerising Pankaj Kapoor.

'Halla Bol' tries to deal with too many subjects and sequences at one time- rape, violence, power, crime, fraud, the darker side of Bollywood, things behind Page 3, media and abuse. Due to this the film seems to lose its grip and track every now and then. Two incidents which the film instantly brings to our memory is the old but not-so-old Jessica Lal murder case and the murder of the noted street theatre activist Safdar Hashmi during a performance.

The films gains momentum when Ajay Devgan steps ahead for justices aided with Pankaj Kapoor. We have some powerhouse performances by Pankaj Kapoor. Ajay Devagn has done justice to his role. Vidya Balan has not much to do except one scene when she hits the media when it raises questions on her marriage. Darshan Jariwala comes as a surprise package.

The dialogues are hard-hitting. Many of them receive a loud clapping. The musical scores are average, in fact quite forgettable. 'Na Guzre Huwe Pal' turns out to be the best number. The director could have done some trimming of the sequences in the second half. Also the climax is not so powerful and lacks the last impact factor.

The memorable and paisa vasool sequences are the one when Ajay relieves himself on the Persian rug at the minister's palatial residence, when Vidya Balan shoots back at the media which is grilling Ajay if his wife has walked out on him, when Abhay Bhargava is trying to bribe Pankaj Kapur and Pankaj replies. The murder of the girl at the night club with stone faced spectators is also hair-raising.

On the whole, Santoshi has tried to bring back what seemed to have disappeared from Hindi cinema in recent times. The fight of common man against the system. Comedy, thrillers and love-story, for a change has taken a back seat and 'Halla Bol' has come up with hard hitting defects of our system. An applaudable try from Santoshi but lacking in a tight script and expert handling of too many issues in a short span of 2-3 hours.