Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Illeana DCruz, Sohum Shah, Nikita Dutta, Ram Kapoor, Sanjeev Pandey, Supriya Pathak, Samir Soni, Mahesh Manjrekar.
Director: Kookie Gulati
BLUF: The Harshad Mehta saga was basically about aspiration, materialism, market exploitation, political deception, banking industry malfeasance, and the birth of the post-liberalization Ponzi scheme philosophy that has been the corporate culture of India ever since. This is the story of a man who found loopholes in a system and used them to create new methods to gain financially from them creating wealth for not only himself but also for a whole generation of Indians who did not have access to that wealth before that.
THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES
Based on the story of Harshad Mehta and one of the largest financial scams in the history of India, the Big Bull documents the rise and fall of this larger-than-life man. In 1987 Hemant Shah (Abhishek Bachchan), in love with Priya (Nikita Dutta), his neighbor was apprehensive about asking her father for her hand in marriage because he was financially insecure. Following a tip off from a client, Hemant decides to invest in shares after some research and creates a business using insider trading activities. He soon becomes a hero of sorts among stockbrokers. Meera Rao (Ileana DCruz), a finance journalist at India Times newspaper, is confident that Hemant is illegally making money at the stock exchange and writes critical articles about him. She stumbles upon shocking evidence about Hemant’s nefarious activities and exposes a scam where she links him to missing money at prominent banks. However well formulated the movie is, it isn’t in the league of the excellently scripted, proficiently acted Ketan Mehta’s 2020 series Scam 1992 on the same topic.
FWAR
Kookie Gulati and Arjun Dhawan’s screenplay is efficient mostly yet they do not fully succeed. Firstly the portrayal of his personal life was incomplete and sketchy. More importantly, the comparisons with SCAM 1992 take away the impact to some extent. Ritesh Shah’s dialogues, however, are intense. Kookie Gulati’s direction cannot fully escape the comparisons to Ketan Mehta’s brilliance in Scam 1992. Had THE BIG BULL been released before SCAM 1992, this perhaps would have been more enjoyable and fascinating for the audiences. The hype and appreciation received by SCAM 1992 made sure that most of the audiences already know the basic plot. Thankfully, the writers have dramatized some sub-plots and added a variation in the end which will leave the viewers surprised. Even if one keeps the SCAM 1992 comparisons aside, the film has another major glitch. It is paced too quickly for comprehension. Some incidents are not described appropriately. For instance, the story drops a mention about Hemant’s father being upset with him but never explains the backstory at all. Then, Hemant starting his own consultancy, named Mile High, happens all of a sudden, leaving viewers confused. The character of Sanjeev Kohli (Samir Soni) is crucial to the narrative, yet the writers and director don’t give him the necessary due in the script. The song ‘Ishq Namazaa’ is very well shot and keeps the interest going. The title track plays in the background in some important scenes in the first half. ‘Hawaon Mein’ is played during the end credits. Sandeep Shirodkar’s background score adds to the drama. Vishnu Rao’s cinematography is appropriate. Durgaprasad Mahapatra’s production design is rich. Darshan Jalan and Neelanchal Ghosh’s costumes are reminiscent of the late 80s and early 90s era. NY VFXWaala’s VFX is laudable. Dharmendra Sharma’s editing is too slick and swift at places.
WHAT WE LOVED ABHISHEK BACHCHAN – one of the most underrated actors in Hindi cinema. He is a rocksta’
WHAT WE MISSED The movie could not shake off the ghost of Pratik Gandhi.
