Bell Bottom Review

Bell Bottom, Streaming Review.

With theaters (almost) permanently closed in Maharashtra, Only the streaming sites are to the rescue.

I might have caught this film in theaters per covid, but now there was no choice but to wait for the online release of Bell Bottom.

First things first, this is an Akshay Kumar vehicle. The entire movie only works due to his acting and charisma. However, this is a role we have seen him do many times, in Baby, Special 26, Airlift etc. Still, he is what makes the movie work.

The first half of the film is all buildup and it does start to seem like a stage play at times. The added songs in the start of the film (shown in convenient flashbacks) do not help the pace at all. Post the painful first 20 mins, the film picks up a lot and the second half is quite nail biting. The first half and second half seem like two different films altogether!

Vaani Kapoor is in the film for absolutely no reason. Even if her character was eliminated fully, nothing would change in the film.

Lara Dutta on the other hand does a competent job of portraying our late PM Mrs. Indira Gandhi (who died in the same year as this film is set in on 31st Oct – My birthday). The benefit of having a younger woman play someone older is the energy they bring to the role. Mrs. Gandhi has been portrayed in this year’s Bhuj as well but not to the same result.

Huma Qureshi has a small but significant guest appearance. She doesn’t much time to show her acting skills (not that she has that many) but at least she isn’t distracting or terrible.

The film is well made overall if one can totally ignore the time period mistakes all over the film. I understand that this is a lower budget film, but they haven’t tried too hard to portray the correct year. The 1979 flashbacks has some reporter carrying a modern looking camera, except for some vintage cars, the roads of London look modern. Not to mention the styling of everyone at the flashback wedding is totally the 2020s and not 1979.

These gaffs aside the special FX is horrendous. The movie seems to be shot a lot on green screen or so the FX would have us believe. None of the airplane shots look even remotely realistic. I don’t thing the VFX team had more than 2 or 3 months to work on this. Might even be lesser time than that.

So if you can ignore the terrible VFX, the mistakes in portraying the right era, then this film is just for you.

Most of these issues however do not spoil the second half of the film, this section of the film is worth a watch.

My biggest issue with Bollywood films is the bollywoodization of the real stories and then making up some new story to suit their hero. This film is the same, but since its better made than Bhuj, it doesn’t grate on the nerves with filmi dialogs or over hyper patriotism.

Rating : 6/10. It’s a decent one time watch. I skipped the songs totally as this own on streaming and I used that to my benefit.

P.S : Amazon Prime needs to do some quality control. I saw the film exactly after 12am Release and the entire film is slightly squashed. Someone screwed up on the aspect ration of the film is some strange way, making everyone look just a tiny bit stretched sideways! Come on Prime! You can do better!