Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Handa-BhondaProducer: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited
Concenpt and Director: Subhankar Chattopadhyay
Story and Script: Padmanavo Dasgupta
Cast: Mithun Chakraborty,Supriya Devi,Paran Banerjee,Biswajit Chakraborty
Handa and Bhonda is a father-son pair with the deceased mothers framed photograph a point of prayer for both for very different reasons. Handa,a quiet and submissive man,who works in the pension office,is a stickler for honesty and hard work,two phrases that do not exist in the office he works in. Bhonda is the exact opposite of his father. He is an Indianised version of Dennis The Menace,flunks in every subject in every exam,forges his fathers signature in the mark-sheet and even steals money from his fathers wallet to buy a swank cell- phone to compete with his rival in class for the favours of the pretty new entrant Megha. The desperate father wishes to become young once again. The angry son,caught at his pranks,prays to his dead mother to make him an adult overnight so that he can do as he pleases. The mothers spirit grants them their wish for seven days. The father has his sons naughty soul and the son now has his fathers honest soul. After some hilarious misadventures,Bhondas soul in Handas body gets rid of the scamsters while Handas soul in Bhondas body turns over a new leaf as one of the best students in class. The spell is lifted when the seven days are over. Handa is no longer the meek person,who can be taken on a ride. Bhonda gets back to his naughtiness,but in the spirit of good fun.
Technical Expertise
Lack of originality is the main lapse of this film. Chatterjee borrows generously from Mrinal Sens Icchapuran (1969) based on a Tagore story. He also dips into the Hollywood flick Freaky Friday (2003) where a middle-aged mother and her teenage daughter are rubbing each other the wrong way. We are also given bits and pieces of Dennis The Menace in his interactions with his elderly neighbour Mr. Wilson and a snip or two from Richie Rich and his intelligent girlfriend Gloria.
Handa-Bhonda is anything but a film for children though it is crowded with a cast full of kids of all shapes and sizes,who are either precocious or stupid. Aritra as Bhonda,almost an overnight star thanks to his anchoring a reality show for children,is somewhat in control in this film. But the lines he has been given to deliver,even as Bhonda,are not for children. Supriya Devi as the stinking rich woman,whose heart bleeds for poor children,is good. But one wishes she had got rid of those plucked eyebrows. Paran Bandopadhyay as Handa-Bhondas elderly neighbour,who lives in constant fear of being spat on by Bhonda every morning,is wonderful. The bald-headed stooge of the greedy boss in Handas office is mind-blowing with his kids lisp and his rustic accent. Mithun is quiet,cool and controlled in the first half. In the second half,when his sons soul has entered his body,he is incongruous and looks terrible. The first half is grindingly slow while the second half does not have much to say,so is filled with two terrible item numbers performed by an over-aged Mithun with a female chorus in skimpily-clad costumes.
There is no challenge in the cinematography. The songs are so-so and the editing needed to be crisper to give that extra edge to the action. The two stars this film hardly deserves goes to a part of the acting cast. Some of the scenes and lines do raise a few laughs. But at the end of it all,Handa-Bhonda is definitely not a film for children.
