This Robinhood couldn’t save the day

Jasmine Singh

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The deeds of Dulla Bhatti, popularly known as the Robinhood of Punjab, find a generous mention in the folklore, as he became the trendsetter in peasant insurgency in medieval Punjab. Now, cut to the present, a contemporary Dulla Bhatti is brought to life onscreen by director Minar Malhotra in the Punjabi film titled Dulla Bhatti.

This Dulla Bhatti has to his share of happy growing years, his bit of love affair, his share of badla, without of course any account or mention of what he did for others (like the folklore says!). Oh! We forgot this is the modern Dulla Bhatti, who believes in the dictum – ‘God helps those who help themselves!’

Dulla Bhatti stars Binnu Dhillon as Dulla Bhatti along with Sardar Sohi, Amar Noorie, BN Sharma, Amar Hundal, Dev Kharound and Nirmal Rishi.

For what is a superb subject for a film, the director, who has also written the film, has left no stone unturned to give it a below average treatment. First, a lot of time is wasted in the showing the childhood days of Dara (this by the way is Dulla Bhatti’s modern name). The director stretches the childhood part way too much and repeats the same while showing Dara’s love interest. It is almost 20-25 minutes into the film, and we have no clue about the story.

Even though this is a modern take on Dulla Bhatti, the director takes no pain to establish his protagonist, not even justifying the name Dulla Bhatti, the Robinhood of Punjab. Minar Malhotra as a writer and as a director doesn’t give any padding to the story and the main character, Dara. The real mission of this ‘self-centred’ Robinhood (this is how the director has made him look in the film) is revealed too late in the film. The movie hits a new low in the second half, where the director hurriedly throws in all the songs and action.

Respite comes from Binnu Dhillon. The director did not give his character any shape, so whatever good comes is from Binnu himself. After his successful film Channo Kamli Yaar di, Binnu again stands out to prove that he can run a film without any frills, but he definitely needs a better director to achieve this! Amar Noorie; the pretty artiste shows her talent in her comeback film. Just the right emotions, Amar has all the reasons to stay in Pollywood. Then comes the villain, Sardar Sohi, who has also written the dialogues; his villainy deserves thumbs-up, he justifies his character, but he also needs to pull up his costume designer! BN Sharma, the actor with immense talent, fails to impress. Dev Kharound comes in the second half of the film and that also in a character that has no shape. Even without his character, Dulla Bhatti would still be the same. Aman Hundal; next time this beautiful face should ask the director for a role that has more lines to speak. Dulla Bhatti has good music that is thrown in one after the other in the second half. Well, this Dulla Bhatti couldn’t save the day at all, all thanks to the writer-director.

jasmine@tribunemail.com