Bolo Raam

Cast: Naseerudin Shah, Padmini Kolhapure, Om Puri, Rishi Bhutani, Disha Pandey

Director: Rakesh Chaturvedi

Rating:*

Do not get misled by the impressive cast. The stalwarts, which include the excellent Padmini Kolhapure in a comeback after a sizeable gap, do not have anything to do. Other than hoping for the best, in this well-intentioned but badly-made film.

‘Bolo Raam’ is about a hot-headed young man (Rishi Bhutani) who is arrested for having murdered his mother (Padmini Kolhapure). All the evidence points to him: he’s found lying next to his mother’s dead body, clutching a knife, his face and clothes spattered with blood. The film deals with his refusal to say anything, and how a psychiatrist (Naseer), and a cop (Om Puri) team up to unravel the mystery. One of Shah’s priceless lines goes like this: pehle main brain imaging test karoonga, phir usko psycho-analyse karoonga. You don’t say.

Puri barks at those he suspects of foul play. Shah looks wise in a flowing beard and flowery shirt. He plays solitary chess in his chamber and comes up with all kinds of answers. When the suspect disappears from the cop station, he Naseer says—have you checked the room where his mother’s body is? And there he (the suspect) is, all handcuffed, near a white-sheet wrapped body, looking pretty intact for having gone through a post-mortem. He does the vanishing act once again, and once again Shah says-- have you checked his house? And, of course, there he is again.

Whatever got Shah and Puri to give the nod to this one? And Kolhapure, made to play matron to a fellow whose favourite past-time seems to be to bash people up, is sadly done against.