Producer : Narinder Dhanoa
Director: Guddu Dhanoa
*ing: Bobby Deol, Rani Mukherjee, Ashish Vidyarathi
Music: Anand Raaj Anand

Released on : July 07, 2000

Reviewed by: Rahul Abrol
rabrol@indolink.com

out of 
Bobby Deol and Rani Mukherjee fared better than expected with their first movie together, Badal. With some catchy songs and Punjabi tunes, a Bobby Jatt Deol patent, the pair managed to click on-screen and are back to deliver another action-packed flick with a twist, Bichhoo. Whether it be the pair themselves, the one-word names, the very catchy songs, or the action, somehow, Guddu Dhanao manages to conjure up a good entertainer.

Jeeva (Bobby) is a young man out for revenge. Through dramatic yet clever flashbacks, we learn that Jeeva's family has been wronged by the police and then ousted by society and as a result, burn themselves to death. The reason for this is simple. Jeeva and Kiran (s.p. Malaika Arora Khan) love one another, but Kiran is from a well-to-do and crooked family, and Jeeva is a normal middle-class guy. Upon learning of her father's actions against Jeeva and his family, she seeks revenge upon him by committing suicide. Her father could care less, though, and is more interested in hurting Jeeva.

In retaliation to society, Jeeva seeks revenge by assassinating men upon assignment, as a contract killer. We only see him kill one in the beginning and assume that he isn't completely inhumane. He lives in an apartment building (flats) with his bichhoo (scorpion) and works out tirelessly, living on milk. In the next apartment lives a girl who is also named Kiran (Rani), a smoking, leather-clad, tattooed, dramatic-makeup, loud brat. She lives with her evil step-mother whom she detestsd (with good reason), her step-aunt and her semi-evil father, Bali, who is a drug supplier. The only light in her life is her brother, who returns home soon enough. Her father becomes involved with cheating some people of their drugs, namely the head of the narcotics department, A.C.P. Devraj (who is the Dada of the drug trade), played by Ashish Vidyathi, and they come to kill the entire family. Kiran becomes the only eyewitness to the crime and watches as her entire family is wiped out. She decides to avenge her brother's death and seeks Jeeva's help for refuge, e.g. shelter and aid, and soon enough, they fall in love. Upon learning of the eyewitness, Devraj and gang decide to kill her and Jeeva manages to protect her against the villians coming by the hundreds. Amazing, huh.

The first two hours were much better than the last, and was fairly fast-paced and gripping. Nearing the third hour, the movie loses a bit of steam and its grip on the story, and we get diverted when we shouldn't be. The actions scenes were commendable and worth watching. The storyline was good, though along the way, we lose the focus on Rani's revenge to love, in that since Rani was the one who was directly wronged by Devraj, she should have been focused on seeking revenge by going through grueling training to toughen up, not for Bobby to do it all for her.

Acting on Bobby Deol's part was excellent. He played his role as a wooden (yes, the role was intended to shape this way), emotion-less, angry young man well. His short hair suits him and he appeared fairly polished. Rani did decently well, better than her previous movies, but her emotional scenes need a LOT of work (e.g. she was near laughter when her brother died). She was excessively loud and obnoxious, though, and her role did not demand but a fourth of what she laid out. She has lost weight and looks nice, thoguh I would recommend Clearasil for her acne problem. The cake goes to Ashish Vidyathi, though, for his excellent portrayal of a psychotic narcotics officer cum killer, and he did have some excellent and convincing scenes. Malaika Arora takes the cake for the unmentionables, as her acting, as little as it was, was pathetic and makeup/clothing was repulsive (the overbite was difficult to adjust to), and she ought to just stick to walking the catwalk and dancing her two-bit songs and leaving the acting to the actresses.

The songs were very catchy and were executed well, though the placement of the songs did not make much sense at all and were ill-placed/did not flow in the movie. Nevertheless, they did provide for good breaks from the intense movie (which could have used to light-hearted scenes instead). The Pyar Ho Na Jaye song was pretty funny, as some random people were dancing in the front of the Taj Mahal and they looked absolutely ridiculous, and the intensity of the song was completely lost in its execution.

There isn't much to say about costumes as they did not change but maybe once in the movie. The ending, which I will not reveal, and some other parts of the action scenes were very very funny. In addition, the relationship of the title to the actual movie was lost and all we can do to make up for it is to make up some philosophical meaning behind the title (which likely was not the intention).

Overall, though, Bichhoo is definitely a good entertainer, and the audience walked out after the credits began to roll (yes, they actually stayed until the end!). The movie was worth watching in the theater and makes for a good action-packed flick.