Star cast: Anshuman Jha, Asif Basra, Amit Sial, Uttkarsh Majumdar, Faiz Mohammad, Suruchi Aulakh, Yaushika Verma, Shameem Khan
Director: Janaki Vishwanathan
What’s Good: The film’s satirical tone and ace concept makes it a well grounded plot right from the start.
What’s Bad: The
abruptness of the film will tick you off. The film had every ingredient
to seem interesting and the inability to build on the good parts makes
it quite a half baked watch.
Loo break: More than just a few.
Watch or Not?: Yeh Hai Bakrapur
could have been quite an intelligent take on India’s affiliation for
blind faith. But the film somehow manages to kill its caliber with its
shabbily done screenplay and reckless editing. The script lacks
intuitiveness which was expected of it. Not entirely unwatchable but the
film leaves by a sinking feeling which cannot be the residue of a
confident product. It is a crucial story told without any keenness.
The story of the film is set in a small, predominantly Muslim village
where the Qureshi family owns a goat. The family wants to discard their
pet but that isn’t acceptable to the little boy who loves his pet. A
way must be plotted to save him from going away.
The boy does get his way through but his pet goat suddenly becomes
the talk of the town and beyond attaining a Superstardom overnight. With
endorsements flocking his way, the goat becomes the subject of people’s
likings and even Hindu-Muslim politics.
How does this end is what is an interesting thing to look out for in this film.
Anshuman Jha and Asif Basra In a still from movie ‘Yeh Hai Bakrapur’
Yeh Hai Bakrapur Review: Script Analysis
If you sniff closely, Yeh Hai Bakrapur has the essence of a
politically inclined story. But what draws your attention to the film is
its childlike innocence and how the writing invests in building a
tender story revolving around Shahrukh, the goat. The animal, for no
credit of his, evolves into a seraphic creature of sorts. Definitely the
commentary is on how interrelated blind faith and illiteracy is, but
the message comes out quite contrived. There is a clear lack of clarity
in the film’s writing which leads to a sloppy screenplay for it.
Though the end product isn’t much to my satisfaction, I cannot help
but bring up the tenderness in the tale. Yes, the main reason why the
milieu of the film seems even remotely attractive is because of the
child like glee in the wee moments of the film. The child’s love for his
goat arouses an array of really delicate emotions.
While it all begins well, the story’s slow build up infuriates one,
almost making one lose interest. The story doesn’t really move much,
beating around the bush over and over again. The characters become flat
and doesn’t evolve further over the course of the film and most
importantly, the pivotal point of story stands defeated by the time the
end credits flow down the big screen.
It is the lack of a nuanced story in a plot of this vein, is what I
understood as the problem with the film’s script. The way the script
infuses the tragedy of poverty is near perfect but doesn’t really build
on the main theme too much. The ripples caused by the goat Shahrukh
isn’t exactly believable due to the shaky storytelling in those parts.
The flow of the film ends up grinding your brains to pulp ending in
nothing more than sheer futility.
Yeh Hai Bakrapur Review: Star Performances
Anshuman Jha does a stellar job and manages to emerge as a startling
performer every time he is on screen. He is endearingly innocent and
awfully sweet.
Suruchi Aulakh is another one hard to miss. She holds her ground with the character and plays it with perfection.
Asif Basra is great in his part too and adds well to the film.
Yeh Hai Bakrapur Review: Direction, Editing and Screenplay
Janaki Vishwanathan’s work is potent but lacks finesse. There are a
multiple sequences in the film that conveys mostly the story’s inability
to settle well with the audiences. The unhurried pace could have been
used to establish something but it is eventually wasted away with a
climax and an ending that clearly lacks soul.
Though there is authenticity in how she frames the rural background
of the film and uses it as a character in her film, the loose second
half with a sloppy storytelling and finally a blunt ending doesn’t
reflect well on the film.
Indian Ocean’s music is put to good use too but, the film doesn’t turn out to perfection.
Yeh Hai Bakrapur Review: The Last Word
I did not leave the hall with a smile after Yeh Hai Bakrapur
for the simple reason that I saw there was lot more potential entrapped
in the story than what came out on screen. The frenzy for filmstars in
our country left unexplored despite being hinted on repeatedly.
The flat climax and dissatisfaction after the ending left me dull.
There was so much matter put to so little use. I am going with a 2.5/5.
