When you look at the success of the YRF spy-universe movies, you won’t really feel like blaming Ali Abbas Zafar for designing something like a Bade Miyan Chote Miyan. Since patriotism and over-the-top heroism have been the flavor of the season, Ali has made this film with a lot of stuff that is purely designed to make it a fan service package. But with the script deliberately going after flashy stuff and plot devices that even the MI franchise has declared ancient, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan is a movie that covers up its lack of substance through tasteless humor and chaotic action.
So we have this villain who snatched the high-security weapon of the Indian Army while it was being transported to a secure location. The defense is in trouble, and Colonel Azad decides to bring in his best men who were apparently court-martialed from the forces. How these two, Captain Firoz, aka Freddy, and Captain Rakesh, aka Rocky, manage to do the damage control for their country is what we see in Ali Abbas Zafar’s Bade Miyan Chote Miyan.
Even though it was slightly over the top, the interval reveal that happens in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan felt like an interesting thought as the double role possibilities with which they tease you can make the battle look much more intricate. But sadly, post the intermission, there was no plan to explore that possibility, and the movie just went on and on with unremarkable backstories with unexciting twists. The fan service Ali Abbas Zafar tries to provide is placed at awkward points, making the movie look like it was trying to look cool desperately. There is a charm to how Tony Stark talks and his witty one-liner counters are so fun and effective. Ali Abbas Zafar is trying to cater something of that sort to the Indian audience, but unfortunately, it feels so plastic.
The movie was never really designed as an acting challenge to both the male leads of the movie. Akshay Kumar as Freddy and Tiger Shroff as Rocky are pretty much repeating their default action-hero setting in this film. While Akshay was somewhat smooth in delivering the humor, Tiger was struggling to crack the humor neatly just like his character Rocky. Manushi Chhillar gets this inconsequential character who pretty much acts like a coordinator. Alaya F plays this chatterbox IT specialist, Ali Abbas Zafar’s version of Benji. Prithviraj Sukumaran, who plays the antagonist in this film, has actually got the role that very much requires acting. You have him in dual shades, the character is going through a lot, he speaks a lot, and like how he mentioned during the promotions, the story we are witnessing is only there because of this revenge-seeking villain. Sonakshi Sinha is there in a role credited as a special appearance. But she pretty much has an equal screen time compared to the other female leads in the film.
SPOILERS AHEAD! If you look at the filmography of Ali Abbas Zafar, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan is perhaps the most superficial film he has made. Even when he went over the top with movies like Bharat, there was a grounding drama that made his stories look interesting on paper. In the case of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, the drama is not really there. When you finally understand what the backstory was, it just feels like an unimaginative recreation of Mission Impossible and several Marvel movies. The scale of the set pieces is huge, but the design lacks freshness. The cinematography was more aligned towards making the frames look grand. The visual effects were a bit uneven. For a double role visual of one of the characters, you could really see that the other one was clearly a look-alike who clearly didn’t look like the actor (forgot to do the face-swap I guess).
Prithviraj Sukumaran recently said in an interview that he had learned that it is always better to play the unremarkable character in a great film than to play that standout character in a bad film. Because characters don’t live long, films do. Looking at the quality of Bade Miyan Chote Miyan in its entirety, I guess he might have learned that lesson very recently.
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan is a movie that covers up its lack of substance through tasteless humor and chaotic action.
Green: Recommended Content
Orange: The In-Between Ones
Red: Not Recommended
