Bunty Aur Babli (2005)

 Bunty Aur Babli Movie Trailer 2005

Crew

Directed by     Shaad Ali
Produced by     Aditya Chopra
Screenplay by     Jaideep Sahni
Story by     Aditya Chopra
Narrated by     Amitabh Bachchan
Music by     Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy
Cinematography     Abhik Mukhopadhyay
Editing by     Ritesh Soni
Distributed by     Yash Raj Films

Cast

    Amitabh Bachchan as Dashrath Singh
    Abhishek Bachchan as Rakesh Trivedi / Bunty
    Rani Mukerji as Vimmi Saluja / Babli
    Raj Babbar as Bunty's Father
    Talluri Rameshwari as Bunty's Mother
    Puneet Issar as Papaji (Babli's Father)
    Kiran Juneja as Babli's Mother
    Pratima Kazmi as Phoolsakhi
    Prem Chopra as a Truck Driver
    Sanjay Mishra as Q.Q Qureshi
    Ravi Baswani as Hotel Owner
    Virendra Saxena as Police Commissioner
    Yunus Parvez as a Hotel Owner
    Tania Zaetta as Kate
    Anupam Shyam as Raj Kapoor Tiwari
    Rajesh Vivek as a Protestor
    Aishwarya Rai in a Special Appearance in song 'Kajra Re'
    Shaad Ali in a Guest Appearance
    J. Brandon Hill as Harry
    Kunal Kumar as Newspaper Salesman

Story

Rakesh Trivedi (Abhishek Bachchan) comes from a small village. His father is a ticket collector on the train, and wants him to get into a similar occupation as well. However, Rakesh has big dreams; he is forever coming up with new business plans and is convinced he will make it big one day. He adamantly refuses any notion that he will one day work in a 9-to-5 environment.

Vimmi Saluja (Rani Mukerji) is the daughter of a Punjabi family in another small village; she spends her hours watching films and studying supermodels, and dreams of becoming Miss India one day.

One day Vimmi's parents tell her they have arranged her marriage to a young man with a decent job. At the same time Rakesh's father gives him an ultimatum – go to the interview for the job his father has arranged for him, or get out of the house.

Rakesh and Vimmi both pack their bags in their respective homes and sneak out in the dark of the night. They bump into each other at a train station, and become friends after realizing their stories are similar. Both support and encourage each other to achieve their dreams: Vimmi tries to enter herself in the Miss India contest but gets thrown out after an argument, and Rakesh tries to sell his ideas for an investment scheme, but a businessman turns him away. In fact, a man he had met at a restaurant stole ideas from Rakesh's presentation file and when he enters the office, the interviewer states someone before him came in with the same idea. After finding out that the businessman who Rakesh had approached has used his idea to make money for himself, he and Vimmi con him and take money they believe is rightly theirs.

Once they realize how easy it is to con people, they decide to run some more scams in order to raise money to make it to Bombay.

Unfortunately for India, they find the lifestyle too exciting to give up. Adopting the fake names of 'Bunty' and 'Babli', they successfully pull off scam after scam, looting and conning rich people dressed as local guides, religious priests, health inspectors, business partners, etc. Their flamboyant antics make them famous in newspapers nationwide. Soon their friendship leads to romance and they decide to continue scamming the rich as husband and wife.

Little do Rakesh and Vimmi know that ACP Dashrath Singh (Amitabh Bachchan) is catching up with their scams and pranks, getting closer each time. He relentlessly pursues them across India in the hopes of putting them behind bars. To complicate matters, Rakesh and Vimmi have a child, and after a very close call eluding Dashrath they decide to quit conning for their child's sake. Ironically, this decision leads to their capture by Dashrath. While in custody, their heartfelt confessions and conversation soften the detective's heart and he lets them go, certain he has destroyed Bunty and Babli's career as criminals.

Years later, Dashrath rescues them from their mundane and domestic lives to work for the nation thwarting the activities of other scammers.

The plot, although it draws on the idea of two rather lovable crooks, does not contain much violence. In fact each of the adventures of Bunty and Babli are thoroughly Indianised, like the fake selling of the Taj Mahal. It draws comparisons to the American classic "Bonnie and Clyde", however there are no dark elements to the film. In fact, as stated above, there is minimal violence and the characters do not die a bloody death, unlike their American counterparts. The robberies done were usually to teach a lesson or exact revenge for some previous altercation.

Did you know?

1. Hrithik Roshan was approached for the role of Bunty. However, recalling the disastrous Mujhse Dosti Karoge!, he put a condition that he would do the film if it was directed by either Yash Chopra or Aditya Chopra. Abhishek Bachchan was approached next and he accepted the role.
2. The movie is a homage to work of Amitabh Bachchan (who also stars in the movie). His son (Abhishek Bachchan) tries to reprise his father's roles in various movies. For example he tries to act like Amitabh bachchan from Agnipath in the scene where he goes on to con a hotel owner in Mussoorie. He appears in Rishi Kappor get-up from Amitabh's super hit film Amar Akbar Anthony. Also, almost all the songs playing in the background throughout the movie are from Amitabh Bachhan movies.
3. As part of an advertising campaign for the film, Bunty and Babli were seen broadcasting the news on the Hindi news channel NDTV.
4. The horn-rimmed glasses and old-fashioned dress Babli dons to give an old-fashioned look to her persona is a reference to the popular Hindi serial _Jassi Jaissi Koi Nahin (2003)_.
5. A song titled "I'm in Love" was composed for the film, but it was deemed inappropriate for such a rustic and earthy film and eventually appeared in Neal 'N' Nikki.
6. Heard in the mujra hall is the song "Salaam-E-Ishq" from Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, which featured Amitabh Bachchan, who also stars in this film. Interestingly, the first song became the title of Salaam-E-Ishq, which has, just as in this film, music by Shankar Mahadevan, Ehsaan Noorani, and Loy Mendonsa.
7. Heard in the mujra hall is the song "Dil Cheez Kya Hai" from Umrao Jaan. Interestingly, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, who has a special appearance in this film, plays the titular character in Umrao Jaan's remake, Umrao Jaan, which also stars Abhishek Bachchan.
8. Sushmita Sen was considered for the "Kajra Re" item number.
9. The Aishwarya Rai Track 'Kajra Re' was a take of Rekha from the film 'Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978)' in the song 'Saalame Ishq'
10. Since seriously injuring Amitabh Bachchan in Coolie, this was the first time in 22 years Puneet Issar appeared in the same film as Amitabh Bachchan, even though they didn't have any scenes together.