The Big Bull: A Movie Review

 

When the trailer dropped for The Big Bull for the first time on YouTube, I asked the same question as everyone else – how is this going to be better than Scam 1992? Though it is unfair, to pit a web series against a movie, the similarities in the storylines, made me prejudiced. Agreed a web series has more time for story and character development while a movie has its limitations, I wasn’t planning to watch this, but choices are restricted these days, so I thought I’d give it a try. I’m not an Abhishek Bachchan fan, but I put my misguided faith in Ajay Devgn. But alas, it was for nothing. Thirty minutes in, and I was ready to give up completely!

The attempt to make the movie more interesting through the reporter Meera Rao's (Ileana D’cruz)’s narration falls completely flat. And so does her mediocre old-age makeup and her fake English accent. She seemed unnecessarily placed in many shots, which made her presence even more annoying.

The poorly developed script, director Kookie Gulati’s previously disastrous track record, and a completely over-the-top romantic angle made me want to send out a frustrated open letter to the makers. The movie, for whatever strange reason, doesn’t explore the lead character’s true motivations behind his actions, of greed and hunger for power; but instead, paints him as a lover going to extreme lengths to get his lady love!

The 1992 scam was pulled off by a con man, not a hero, something the makers of this film completely forgot! Abhishek, as a Gujarati broker, gave one of his most pathetic performances ever. In fact, none of the characters in the film even bothered to practice a convincing Gujarati accent, and that extreme unpreparedness showed. Even experienced actors like Saurabh Shukla and Mahesh Manjrekar are wasted in their mediocre roles.

The screenplay of the movie is mistake-ridden and several scenes are overly dramatized. Rather than attempting to recreate the original events and depict the character’s raw emotions to the extreme conditions, the director chose to give it a more Bollywood spin and ended up skewing the whole film. To make things worse (wasn’t sure there was scope) Abhishek’s sudden (read out-of-place) evil laughter scenes, make no sense, and may end up getting on your nerves. The music for Scam 1992 was also an integral part of its success among the masses, which this movie completely failed to achieve.

In a nutshell, don’t waste your time on this movie. There’s a lot more you can do with your life in 2.5 hours.

Available on: Disney+ Hotstar