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Join UsPlot: Sharman and Faruk want to rule the underworld. They form their own team of youngsters. But where does all this lead?
What’s Good: Performance of Sharman Joshi; a Kailash Kher number.
What’s Bad: The routine script.
Verdict: Allah Ke Banday will bomb.
Loo break: Several.
Rising Star Entertainment and Percept Picture Company’s Allah Ke Banday (A) is the story of two young men, Vijay (Sharman Joshi) and Yakub (Faruk Kabir), who take to the world of crime even when they are little kids. From delivering drugs to looting people, they do anything that gets them money. The two friends aspire to assert their position in the world of crime when they grow up. One day, the two kids are convicted for a murder and sent to the juvenile reformatory where they are abused. Set free as adults, Vijay and Yakub form a gang of young boys to rule the slums they were born in.
Vijay is the intelligent guy with dangerous ideas whereas Yakub is the hot-headed one. With the police on their trail, as they unleash terror, Vijay and Yakub are ultimately forced to make a choice between following their childhood dreams and redemption.
Script & Screenplay
Faruk Kabir’s story starts on a promising note as Vijay and Yakub’s characters are introduced. But monotony sets in as the drama progresses. The portion of their childhood misdeeds is too lengthy and the film takes too long to come to the real drama of the two young men. The screenplay (also penned by Faruk Kabir) goes haywire in the second half as mindless violence takes precedence over all else. Not much care has been taken to establish reasons why Vijay and Yakub are doing what they are doing. Even when Vijay and Yakub do conflicting things towards the end, it is not clear why they are not in synch with each other.
Not just that, the screenplay also offers nothing by way of novelty and it appears to be an assemblage of fiery and dramatic scenes from earlier action and underworld films. But since there have been so many such films in the past, it is juvenile to expect yet another one in the same genre and with nothing new to offer, to make an impact on the viewer. Faruk Kabir would have done better to offer some freshness in his maiden attempt. Dialogues (by Faruk Kabir) are natural and go with the mood of the film.
Star Performances
Sharman Joshi does a fine job, as always. Faruk Kabir makes a confident debut as the second male lead. Naseeruddin Shah acts well but gets very limited scope. Atul Kulkarni is good but he doesn’t have good enough scenes to justify his presence. Anjana Sukhani fills the bill. Rukhsar is alright in a brief role. Zakir Hussain performs ably. Suhasini Mulay and Vikram Gokhale lend able support. Master Saksham Kulkarni is nice in the role of Vitthal. Master Madan Deodhar (as child Vijay) and master Varun Bhagwat (as child Yakub) are very impressive.
Direction, Music & Editing
Faruk Kabir’s direction, limited as it is by his ordinary script, is just about okay. Of the songs, music directors Kailash Kher, Naresh and Paresh’s ‘Kya dharti kya amber’ is a beautiful number which is also excellently rendered (Kailash Kher) and lyrically (Kailash Kher) rich. ‘Maula’ (composed by Chirantan Bhatt and penned by Sarim Momin) is also a good song. Sham Kaushal and Sandeep Francis’ action scenes are well-composed but, like the script, they lack freshness. Cinematography (Vishal Sinha) is alright. Editing (Sandeep Francis) could’ve been sharper.
The Last Word
On the whole, Allah Ke Banday is a non-starter and will go largely unnoticed mainly because it has nothing new to offer.
