Babli Bouncer movie review: empowerment with a ‘box’ of smile

OTT movie Babli Bouncer review

Chandni Bar, Satta, Page 3, Fashion, Heroine etc Madhur Bhandarkar’s female characters moistly protagonist are strong and empowering. Babli from Babli bouncer also falls in this league but with a difference.

While Tabu in Chandni Bar, Raveena Tandon in Satta, Priyanka Chopra and Kangana Ranaut in Fashion or Kareena Kapoor in Heroine or say Kirti Kulhari in Indu Sarkar all were intense, serious and determined.

Madhur Bhandarkar’s Babli in Babli Bouncer is modeled more on feel good escapist mainstream bindass bala which in the beginning seems to be a gadbad ghotala (though Madhur opens with a feisty fight between Babli and those rich goons).

Almost half way through and I was searching for that Madhur which I liked and admired in the above mentioned female oriented cinema.

Just when I was about to make an opinion that this is a love story of a female pehalwan gone wrong, came that blow that shooked and waked things up.

After that birthday party incident, Babli Bouncer takes a journey and makes subtle statements on women empowerment at crucial occasions.

The movie finds its purpose and am happy that Madhur has done a decent not great or brilliant work like Chandi Bar, Page 3, Fashion, Traffic Signal or Satta in that matter.

A rare Madhur Bhandarkar ‘entertainer’ I would like to put it rather than cinema.

Problems are plenty but to name a few - like struggle for Babli to become a lady bouncer in the male dominated regime is missing.

Babli’s inspiration to become a bouncer or say stand on her own comes from a failed affair with a man.

It’s not designed to be serious agree but still..

However, there are some good heartwarming moments in this attempted ‘family’ entertainer.

The bonding of Babli with his father especially played by Saurabh Shukla.

The equation between Babli and Sidhu is also adorable.

Attention to accent has been given.

Performance

Babli Bouncer is Tamannaah’s film. She has worked hard on her accent and the actress wins heart.

Saurabh Shukla excels after that disappointment in the web series Dahan.

Abhishek Bajaj is good. Sahil Vaid as Sidhu has his moments. Saanand Verma is fine. Sabyasachi Chakrabarty leaves his mark.  Upasana Singh as Mrs Chaddha is fantastic.

Final words

Babli Bouncer is not that Madhur Bhandarkar cinema it’s more of an Madhur Bhandarkar entertainer ( he did one comedy Toh Baccha Hai Ji in 2011 starring Ajay Devgn, Emraan Hashmi and Omi Vaidya) but this one is an attempted family entertainer.

A combo of feel good family rom com with some ‘boxes’ of women empowerment featuring Tamannaah in a never before avatar. Go for it, This bouncer is not harmful, she is pleasant and heartfull. Going with 3 in generosity an extra for Tamannaah Bhatia.

Babli Bouncer is streaming on Disney + Hotstar