'Bullett Raja' - Masala Fest Of Guns, Grime, Glory

Film: "Bullett Raja"; Cast: Saif Ali Khan, Jimmy Shergill, Sonakshi Sinha and Vidyut Jammwal; Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia; Rating: ****

"Bullett Raja" is woven around characters who aren't particular about the company or the morals that they keep. Politicians and entrepreneurs hobnob with criminals and criminals end up becoming heroes of the masses just because democracy in India gives us little to choose from.

Saif Ali Khan's Raja Misra (no 'h' in the surname, plij) is a scummy sort of Robin Hood in Lucknow whom we meet initially as he escapes with his life from goons in screeching cars by gatecrashing into a wedding. There he meets Rudra (Jimmy Shergill). Then begins a kind of affable bonding between the two men, and it goes beyond the precincts of the maudlin friendships we've seen in our films so far.

Saif and Jimmy, brilliant actors both, bring a kind of brusque but unbreakable friendship between them, a bonding that you know only death can break. And it does.Dhulia, in his most mass-oriented cinematic outing to date, brings a lot of Jai-Veeru's "Sholay" bonding into play. The two actors do the rest. They gamely sink their teeth into the morass of Indian politics, giving a stirring dignity to inherently unsavoury episodes from the murky politics of Uttar Pradesh.

Dhulia's skills as a raconteur of remarkable aptitudes was most evident in "Paan Singh Tomar". Here, he attempts something even more daring. He merges mythological and historical allusions into current politics and he weds heroism and hooliganism without causing any discernible damage to his work's aesthetics.
Saif's character, a mix of goon and boon, gun and grins doesn't tire of reminding his adversaries of his Brahminical roots. He also has a strange penchant for quoting from the scriptures at the most inopportune moments.

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