Read the full article on gulfnews.com - ‘Baazaar’ review: Saif Ali Khan is splendid as a ruthless tycoon: http://bit.ly/2WlCRKB
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Set against the murky world of stock trading in Mumbai, Khan plays the devilish guru of greed Shakun Kothari.
See more videos at https://gulfnews.com/videos
Set against the murky world of stock trading in Mumbai, Khan plays the devilish guru of greed Shakun Kothari.
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00:00Hi, this is Manjusha Radhakrishnan from Gulf News Tabloid
00:03and I've just been to watch Saif Ali Khan's crime thriller Baazaar.
00:07The game should have changed a little bit, Ma'am.
00:10Kothari.
00:16It's set against the murky world of stock trading in Mumbai's Dalal Street.
00:21You can call it perhaps it's the equivalent of New York's Wall Street.
00:26And we have Shakun Kothari, played by Saif Ali Khan, playing this shark-like businessman.
00:32Just like a volatile stock market, this movie has its shares of ups and downs.
00:37Let me start with what worked for me.
00:40Seasoned actor Saif Ali Khan puts his best foot forward
00:43as the manipulative, wild and virulent stock trader, Shakun Kothari.
00:50He's this self-made billionaire tycoon and he's an expert at hostile takeovers.
00:56He's suited up but he's a Gujarati at heart.
00:59The way he gets the nuances of playing a Gujarati businessman
01:02without caricaturing it and making it comical,
01:05you have to give credit to Saif Ali Khan for injecting so much class and gravitas into this role.
01:11Trust a seasoned actor like Saif Ali Khan to inject humour and gravitas into cheesy lines like
01:26Note ka maalik banne ke liye usse kamaana padta hai.
01:29It's very interesting to see a suited up Saif Ali Khan inject so much life
01:34into a character that is complex and that is also very cunning.
01:39He's extremely likeable.
01:41All his deeds or misdeeds as we can call them are not very trustworthy
01:46but yet your heart goes out to him.
01:49You kind of understand why this rags to riches businessman functions.
01:53He manages to inject a certain kind of likability into his character.
01:57But one of the weakest links of this movie is the newbie Rohan Mehra.
02:01He's the son of late actor Vinod Mehra.
02:04I know that he's a new actor and the benefit of doubt has to go to him
02:08because it's his first time in front of the camera.
02:11But what lets us down is the fact that he is not
02:15very capable of carrying such an important role in the movie.
02:20The film is told from his perspective.
02:23Main Mumbai aapke saath kaam karne aaya tha.
02:27Chokro Hoshiyaar chhe.
02:29Welcome to Mumbai Rizwan Ahmed.
02:35His lifelong ambition is to penetrate the revered circle of Shakun Kothari.
02:40The way he gets into his circle is not very believable.
02:44Perhaps it's because Rohan Mehra does not simply have the bandwidth
02:47to carry such an important role.
02:50As I said the movie is told from his perspective
02:52so this whole idea that he has the onus to actually carry the movie on his shoulders,
02:58he has very frail and cultish acting prowess to begin with.
03:03So to give somebody such a huge responsibility was not the greatest idea.
03:08Director Gaurav Chawla in this movie places a lot of faith in this newcomer.
03:12I wish he had given that much amount of love to Shakun Kothari
03:16played by Saif Ali Khan who's a more seasoned actor.
03:19There's also Radhika Apte and Chitrangada Singh.
03:22Now usually you know that the world of stock trading is dominated by men
03:27but here for a change the women too have a worthy role to play.
03:31They're not just trophy girlfriends or trophy wives.
03:33Especially Radhika Apte's character is quite complex in a very good way.
03:38So it's interesting to see her play a seemingly harmless not so dark a character.
03:43To become like me you have to cross the line.
03:46Will you cross the line?
03:49While the first half of the movie is engaging and moves at a rapid pace
03:52it's the second half that lets you down.
03:54There are so many loopholes and there are so many questions that arise in your head
03:59about how does Rizwan Ahmed get such easy access to a billionaire businessman
04:04who's got such a stooge of men around him.
04:08It's something that is never answered.
04:10It's also very weird that Rizwan Ahmed for all his street smartness and naivete
04:15does not guess what kind of a man Shakun Kothari is.
04:20He's ruthless.
04:21The way he swoops in for a kill is a treat to watch
04:24but I'm surprised that a young boy like Rizwan Ahmed
04:27was not even guessing what his intentions are.
04:31How can he think that a billionaire businessman made all that money by being noble?
04:35So that kind of naivete was not wholly convincing.
04:38Another letdown of the movie is its interminable length.
04:42It's a long-winded drama so you have to be really patient with it
04:45and there are some very very cheesy lines.
04:48Now Saif Ali Khan manages to inject some kind of weightage into those lines.
04:57But the same cannot be said for Rizwan Ahmed.
05:00His dialogues are just cheesy
05:02and he simply does not have the kind of charisma or the magnetic appeal to pull it off.
05:07I'm going with 2.5 out of 5.
05:09For my full review go to gulfnews.com tabloid