In the early 70s, the intense eyes and dynamic voice of a tall young man made India go crazy – giving birth to the legend what we all know as Angry Young Man - Amitabh Bachchan. Since then he has come of age, even in literal sense. However, for all those who love his earlier movies like Zanjeer, Sholay, Deewaar, Shakti, seeing him go almost berserk yet again on the silver screen will be a treat to cherish. Telugu film director, Puri Jagannath’s second outing in Bollywood – Buddah Hoga Tera Baap is the answer to the prayers of huge Amitabh Bachchan fans.

What’s it about : Kabir (Prakash Raj), a mafia don, successfully causes mayhem in Mumbai through a series of bomb blasts. Though Kabir’s whereabouts are unknown, ACP Karan (Sonu Sood) is closing in on him! Irked by Karan’s small but useful successes, Kabir wants to finish him off, and is on the lookout for a new face to do the job. Enter an old man, Viju (Amitabh Bachchan). He is coming back from Paris after quite a while, and is after Karan, planting bombs under his jeep, or almost killing him some other time. Viju’s age could easily be sixty, but he is an adept shooter, with the special ability to bend bullets even as he shoots in his own whimsical style. It is not long before Viju finds a place in Kabir’s gang, and he is assigned the task of finishing off Karan. The ‘enmity’ between Karan and Viju explains why he had to join Kabir’s gang. What could be the reason for ‘enmity’ between two men who ‘almost’ never met in their life properly? Or is it enmity really!

What is Good : It seemed Amitabh Bachchan, the amazing actor that he is, needed someone to unleash his incredible power and attitude, covered mostly in the veil of age! Director Puri, who is known for elevating his protagonists to extreme heights, does just that. What we have is Amitabh Bachchan’s full persona taking over the screen completely, leaving the audiences breathless. He wears an over the top attire in style, dances to hit numbers with great energy, performs action stunts with his dynamism, and delivers masala dialogues with enough tadka. Yet, when he performs in the emotional scenes, even stone hearts would melt. In short, Bbuddha completely belongs to Amitabh Bachchan.

Amitabh Bachchan is supported ably by the likes of includes Sonu Sood, who still needs to shed some inhibitions to his acting, and Prakash Raj, whose boundaries for great performance keep stretching every time. Sonal Chouhan comes up with a fair performance too, backed with few more from other supporting actors. Raveena Tandon looks good in her comeback attempt and she shares some humorous scenes with Charmee, who makes an interesting Bollywood debut. But none equal Amitabh Bachchan’s dynamism, as the calmness and the solemnity brought about by another veteran actor, Hema Malini, who plays his estranged wife.

However, that doesn’t mean that the film doesn’t have any flaws.

What is bad: For the most part of the first half, even though the key plot is established, the movie progresses quite awkwardly. Subba Raju is Telugu accent in Hindi dialogue is a big turn off in what could have been even more hilarious situations. The transitions between quite a few scenes seemed quite jerky, and hence the moods of the film never grow onto you; instead they are forced. It is a touch disappointing to see Puri repeating few scenes from his own Telugu films, and making a horrible hash of an exceptional scene from his guru RGV’s Satya. Incidentally, none of these seem to work any which way to the progression of the movie. However, all flaws will be forgiven, simply because of astounding performance from Amitabh Bachchan and because of Puri’s ability to keep the movie true to its basic premise – loads of action, unexpected humor and the star power of a legendary actor.

Technical Departments : One of the key contributors to the success of the film should be the dialogue writers. They seem to complement Puri’s style of Telugu dialogues – quite startling, making sense and giving way to guffaws. The heart attack dialogue during an extremely emotional scene is just an example, and there are many such in the movie. Background score by Anup Rubens is quite agreeable, and Vishal Shekhar add to the zing – be it with the slow and haunting Haale Dil or the remixes. For those who have watched many South Indian films, the action sequences aren’t anything special, but they are sure to wow the Northern audiences. Cinematographer and the production designer keep the production costs to the minimum, but ensure that they don’t lose out on exploiting the histrionics of Amitabh Bachchan.

Bottomline : If Dabbangg re-started the era of hero-oriented action films in the Bollywood, Bbuddha Hoga Tera Baap takes it to the next level. For the fans of Amitabh Bachchan (I’m sure there are millions of them) it is an excuse to be completely gratified as the Big B goes berserk and ballistic.