Director: Ajay Devgn
Writers: Lokesh Kanagaraj (original story), Aamil Keeyan Khan, Ankush Singh, Sandeep Kewlani, Shridhar Dubey
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Deepak Dobriyal, Sanjay Mishra, Gajraj Rao
Towards the end of Bholaa, a key character gets up, goes into a room and shoots himself in the head. The suicide doesn’t make sense from a storytelling point of view, but it feels like an entirely reasonable response to what Ajay Devgn and his crew have done to Lokesh Kanagaraj’s Kaithi (2019). The Tamil action thriller was a taut, smartly-made film that allowed for great action scenes to be framed by a simple but effective plot. Its Hindi avatar amps up the testosterone, adds unnecessary frills — like a cameo from Amala Paul, and a character who seems to be the love child of He-Man’s Skeletor and Jack Sparrow from The Pirates of the Caribbean series — and loses all semblance of logic. By the end of the film, blowing one’s brain out to get the hell out of Bholaa is the only decision that makes any sense.
The basic premise of Bholaa is the same as that of Kaithi: An ex-convict is roped in by a beleaguered police officer to drive a truck past a series of thug-shaped obstacles. The most obvious change in the Hindi film is that the police officer is a woman, played by Tabu. Devgn and Tabu have a long legacy of acting together and off-screen, they are dear friends. You’d think this would mean Devgn as director would make sure Tabu gets at least a few chances to act, if not to shine, in Bholaa.
Initially, there’s a glimmer of promise. Tabu’s character is named Diana, which offers a chance for wordplay — she’s called “daayan” (witch) by her haters — while also perhaps referencing the hunter goddess of Roman mythology. The Roman Diana is a complex portrait of femininity. She’s a virgin goddess, a patron of hunters, protector of childbirth and a goddess of the countryside (symbolic of nature that can be controlled by man). Unfortunately Bholaa’s Diana brings neither complexity nor feminine nuance to the film’s bone-headed, muscular masculinity. She is handicapped by injury and sits on the sidelines of the action because it seems the only way Devgn and his writing team can imagine women is as mothers. Tabu’s contribution to the film is essentially to look more and more dishevelled. Everything you need to know about Diana is summed up by the fact that even an actor of Tabu’s calibre can’t make her memorable.