BANJO - Movie Review

Banjo is directed by Ravi Jadhav, starring Riteish Deshmukh and Nargis Fakhri in the lead roles. A film about Chris (played by Nargis Fakhri) goes for a search for Banjo band, she comes across Tarrat (played by Riteish Deshmukh) who at first is hesitant of giving his identity away as a banjo player. Eventually he does by helping Chris as she struggles. But playing the Banjo is just another part of his life, whilst his real lifestyle is in the dirty of the small streets in the village and dealing with activities such as extortions and fighting with others. Will this unity help create a Banjo band on an international scale?

POSITIVES

• The on screen chemistry between Riteish Deshmukh and Nargis Fakhri was great to see, they looked good together although it is Riteish Deshmukh who takes control on screen by being the better performer in comparison. His efforts of trying to hit on her as well as maintaining his dignity status helps keep this an interesting movie.
• Dialogues are likeable, especially the ones for Riteish Deshmukh’s character. It helps to bring the comedy moments in to the scene. The script had a good concept but was not executed with another new, quite cliché. But what stood out the most along with the dialogues was the climax. The climax was the most powerful part in the film as the rest deemed fairly slow. The unity was great to see and once again that falls to the persona of Riteish who manages to add a spark to this movie. 
• Scenery choices and cinematography was enjoyable showing the streets, small and dirty environment and showcasing the citizens struggle in daily life. How these band members adjusted to such living and how it has affected their mentality and be the way they are. They do struggle to adjust to the westernised attitude of Chris. But I felt this was very informative to help justify why their attitudes were the way they had been presented on screen. 

NEGATIVES

• The beginning voice over narration that gives the information about the characters and their lifestyle was a real bore. The voice needed to help attract but it really did not entice and kept distracting the attention.
• I felt the film was slow paced, it did not create a high intensity with the buzz of the band rise with shows. I felt that was lacking and it was missing for such film. It needed to be bit faster paced with action slamming on screen to help build the importance. I also felt that there were so many things going on in the film, it seemed a bit scattered all over. It needed consistency which was lacking and that disrupted the viewing experience too.

CAST

• RITEISH DESHMUKH - He is impressive with his role, you like to see him in the movie more often. Riteish excels with managing the hard-hitting gangster type character with a bit of a softer romantic type person on screen. This makes the film more appealing and adds more emotion to the scenes. Riteish is strong in his role and implicates a spark in the film when it needed it the most as majority of the pace is slow and needed a push forward. He manages to do that with his co-stars in the band as they shadowed Riteish.
• NARGIS FAKHRI - She is given just as big of a role as her co-star, tries to push the film forward but it just does not come out strongly for her. Her poor Hindi accent does no justice to the film, her acting seems lacklustre at times and it is evident on screen. But she does add the glamour to the film as well as helping Riteish’s character in playing out of his lifestyle persona. Nargis does attempt to boss the team, sometimes it works but sometimes it does not and that does not do justice to her character.

RATING

Overall I would rate Banjo 2/5 purely on the basis of Riteish Deshmukh’s acting performance and the concept and the music. The rest of the film struggled but what keeps you tagging along is the decent and likeable dialogues that also livens up Riteish’s acting performance on screen. The storyline was good but did not get executed really well, the writing department lacked execution and that falters for the film. Dialogues are the only positive aspects of the script whilst the climax powers the film to a strong finish. Performance wise Nargis struggles with her Hindi, she is not convincing enough. She actually holds the film back; her westernised Indian character does not seem believable. She brightens up some scenes with her on screen chemistry with Riteish but it is not enough, only for Riteish to save the film from a complete fall.