In the first quarter of this year, we saw this structure-less movie starring Ajith, Good Bad Ugly, which was an unabashed fan service that garnered good box office earnings. The idea of Bha Bha Ba, the new Dilieep movie, seems to be an attempt to achieve something similar in Malayalam, as Dilieep has enough movies and moments in his career. But even after the movie claiming to be this no-logic, only madness kind of film, it just can’t stick to that format. And as the story progresses, the spoof and the moments that are supposed to create mass euphoria overlap with one another. With an exhausting and elaborate last act that just goes on and on with the backing of an ultra-generic idea, even without logic, Bha Bha Ba is tiring.
So the plot revolves around this one mad person who eventually grabs the spotlight of the whole of Kerala because he decided to kidnap the most influential political figure of the state. What we see in Bha Bha Ba are the efforts of the authorities to find out his whereabouts and the reason why he committed this unimaginable thing.
The no logic, only madness tag definitely works as a defense to the lack of a strong plot. The screenplay is basically a practice of filling the large voids in a generic revenge drama script with every possible real-world reference and obvious fan service. Vineeth Sreenivasan is coming from Chennai, Dhyan Sreenivasan is an interview star, and there is a moment in the movie where they both fight over the things Dhyan talks about Vineeth and his father in interviews. I mean, if the plot had some juice in writing other than slow-motion shots, these kinds of moments would have made anyone laugh easily, and it would have worked like witty add-ons to a great idea. Since all these are happening as a patch-up to cover up the shoddiness, it doesn’t go beyond a giggle.
The movie basically wants Dilieep to be the same guy we have seen in the past. Even though in his introduction scene, he is literally saying he won’t be doing the same stuff, Bha Bha Ba is a collage of all kinds of his same stuff. Since the screenplay mistakes chaos and screaming for madness, his performance is also in that zone. The self-trolling role of Vineeth Sreenivasan as the main antagonist was actually fun to watch. His screaming in the movie blended well with the pitch of this film. Dhyan Sreenivasan’s screen time in the movie feels less than that of the much-anticipated Mohanlal extended cameo. I have to say, it was deeply saddening to see Mohanlal as this fanboy character who is being made to dance, fold a mundu, and twirl his mustache, literally at the command of Gokulam Gopalan. After a point, it wasn’t fan service for L fans, it was basically the makers going “Dance Monkey” at Mohanlal. Actor Baiju gets to play a major role in the movie with significant screen time.
Debut director Dhananjay Shankar has this plan for pulling off something that looks grand on screen. From the kind of frames we see on screen to the scale of almost every scene, there is a desire to make the movie look like the contemporary big-scale spectacles made by people like Prashant Neel or Lokesh Kanagaraj. Much like any other movie, the problem is not with this unoriginal making style. It lies in the writing that hasn’t really evolved from an idea phase. Fahim Safar and Noorin Shereef’s script wants to be too many things and ends up being a gigantic nothing that you won’t remember once you leave the theater. The final quarter of the movie, which went after scale, felt like a rescue operation to give some respectability to the film. Even after Gokulam Gopalan roped in the face of his upcoming Tamil production venture, it was really difficult salvage the movie. Shaan Rahman’s music isn’t that catchy, and maybe because of the placement of that song, the lyrics that felt underwhelming while released as a lyrical weren’t much of a problem.
From looking like a mediocre spoof film in the first half, Bha Bha Ba loses its balance in the second half, and to regain that lost balance, they bombard it with guest appearances, which were too heavy for that fragile foundation to hold. From Dhyan Sreenivasan saying almost the same response Prithviraj had when the actress was assaulted to a kidnapping bit that shows how “we” assume certain news associated with the hero to be negative, there are a handful of problematic easter eggs in this wannabe entertainer. Bha Bha Ba is an action comedy that tries too much with too little and ends up being too draining.
