Review: This company is worth keeping

Badmaash Company
Director: Parmeet Sethi
Cast: Shahid Kapur, Anushka Sharma, Meiyang Chang, Vir Das
Rating: * * 1/2

Yash Raj Films’ Badmaash Company is about four friends who want to make quick money. Karan (Kapur), Bulbul (Sharma), Chandu (Das) and Zing (Chang) forge a partnership and start a business in which they make money by hoodwinking the government, first in India, and then in the US.

Karan and Bulbul have, in the meantime, fallen in love. Soon, Karan becomes too big for his boots and their partnership falls apart. Zing, Chandu and Bulbul leave him when they realise he has changed.

The law catches up with Karan and he is jailed. Once out of jail, opportunity knocks on his door again when his Jazz uncle (Pawan Malhotra) finds himself in a financial mess. But Karan realises he will once again need the help of Zing and Chandu.

Parmeet Sethi’s story is fresh and even the anecdotes in the first half are quite new, youthful, and entertaining. The language used by the friends, their attitude, their behaviour are all so typical of the youngsters today that the school- and college-going youth will take an instant liking to the foursome.

Also, the tricks adopted by Karan and his company to fool the authorities are intelligent, keeping the viewers constantly involved and engrossed in the proceedings to understand what the ploy is.

But the drama could have been more energetic and a bit more fast-paced. The screenplay takes a dip after the interval, especially when cracks start developing in the friendship of the four friends. The reason for the break-up of Karan and Bulbul looks like a repetition of what one has seen in the recently released Main Aur Mrs Khanna.

Although the climax does not have the usual excitement or melodrama, it does have freshness to compensate. The track of Karan’s parents lends the film emotional appeal though it could have been more pronounced. 

Shahid Kapur acts wonderfully. Anushka Sharma acts well, but she could do with a little more zing.

Badmaash Company is an entertainer. Given its limited budget (around Rs27 crore), it will definitely see the production company smiling all the way to the bank.