Bade Miyan Chote Miyan

Ali Abbas Zafar's story is novel. Ali Abbas Zafar and Aditya Basu's screenplay is great in a few scenes but in most places, the goings-on are difficult to digest. The angle of cloning and Iron Dome is interesting but hasn’t been utilized well in the script. Suraj Gianani and Ali Abbas Zafar's dialogues are funny only in select places. The one-liners mouthed by Tiger and Alaya in several scenes are cringeworthy. Ali Abbas Zafar's direction is fine. There’s no doubt that his filmmaking skills are exemplary and he tries his best to rise above the script. He also mounts the film on a lavish scale and ensures that it looks like a grand entertainer. Though the film is 158 minutes long, it never gets boring. Moreover, it’s impressive how he cuts the villain entry scene with the madness that occurs in Shanghai. It makes for an unexpected watch.

Honestly, I have stopped looking for any logic when it comes to action films. Not that all of them are brainless! Written by Suraj Gianani and Ali Abbas Zafar, BMCM does have a storyline that could have been promising -- but the execution gets so overboard that you barely focus on the story. It's all about gunshots, bomb blasts, planes and cars being set ablaze, and each time you see fire on the screen, the heroes walk in slo-mo, expecting us to not blink an eye. Also, audiences have cheered enough last year when they saw some raw action in Pathaan, Jawan and Tiger 3. Replicating it in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan doesn't really make it an equally good watch.

At some point while watching Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, I felt my eyelids getting heavier – had I perhaps not slept enough? That would’ve been my first hypothesis if it was any other film but with this film, the answer was clear – the ‘action entertainer’ was just boring. Honestly, an action film doesn’t always need a lot going for it – the thrill of watching well-crafted action on a big screen is enough for a film to be an enjoyable experience but this film feels like you’re watching the same films you’ve watched before. Not only that, you’re also somehow watching them all at once.

The songs of these films are forgettable, and do not stand out at all. It is also ill-placed. With a 2 hour 44 minutes run-time, it just goes on and on, to a point where you may feel like why are you even in the theatre.