Bade Miyan Chote Miyan: Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff’s film suffers from Pathaan-Jawan hangover

Despite the lukewarm reception, I logged in to watch Bade Miyan Chote Miyan (BMCM) hoping to find some ‘Zafar-ness’ in the film. He didn’t have his trusted Salman to share the burden here, but he did have the country’s other two biggest action heroes – Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff, along with a reported budget of Rs 350 crore. “Intent is more important than talent,” a character says during a crucial scene in the film. Despite Zafar’s direction bringing both to the table, the film couldn’t keep the audience hooked.

The film began with a promise to keep viewers on the edge of their seats but instead had them sinking deeper into ennui with every passing minute. At least the first half had glimpses of Zafar’s style — Akshay played the very self-aware and slightly older Captain Freddie, while Tiger played the young and brash Captain Rocky. The two showed some tough love towards each other and were often seen pulling each other’s leg like old friends do. They were simply the best soldiers of the Indian Army until they encountered their immortal, invincible super clones, created by the evil genius Dr. Kabir (Prithviraj Sukumaran).

The problem with BMCM isn’t its convoluted storyline but its repetitive nature. The film feels like it has drunk a cocktail of Shah Rukh Khan’s last two blockbusters, Jawan and Pathaan, and is high on the concoction. For instance, the film’s antagonist, Dr. Kabir, is the Indian Army’s friend-turned-foe, evoking memories of John Abraham’s Jim in Pathaan. Dr. Kabir’s fragile male ego was fractured by the Indian Army, and now he walks around with blood in his eyes and revenge in his heart against the whole nation. Similarly, Captain Freddie and Rocky are court-martialed soldiers who are called upon simply because there is no one else to fill their brave shoes. Did anyone call for Shah Rukh’s Captain Vikram Rathore? In Jawan, the film’s main antagonist Kalee provides arms to the Indian Army. Here, Dr Kabir creates them for the Army.

This  also could have been acceptable if every intention and action weren’t enunciated in big block capital letters throughout the film. This is where Zafar and the film’s major failure comes in. With most of the attention on creating larger-than-life action sequences, and AI being the big bad, it felt like the makers used the same AI to draft the film’s dialogues, both lacking human intuition and genuine wit. Barring the gravity-defying stunts, the film’s plotline was unconvincing in parts as well. Rocky and Freddie are court-martialed for killing an evil scientist who was pointing a gun at them. They were ordered to capture him alive, but there’s something called an act of self-defence!

While Tiger and Akshay deliver some witty lines here and there like “Terrorism mein bhi nepotism (There is nepotism even in terrorism),” “Hindustan tumpe biryani waste nahi karega (Hindustan won’t waste biryani on you),” and “UK ke Abdul Kalam,” other characters came across as annoying. The biggest example of that is Alaya F’s character. It just didn’t land. Like Salman in Zafar’s films, Akshay tries to give off a deadpan ‘I don’t care’ aura, but it just doesn’t work for him, and he seems bored.

The aim with BMCM was to create a true-blue Bollywood masala potboiler, and the film had the potential to be all that. But the mistake that many filmmakers make is focusing too much on the action and forgetting the storytelling. This time, it was Ali Abbas Zafar who made that mistake.