Bell Bottom review: "Lacked the thrill that was expected by Akki's standards!!!"

After much contemplation, the theatres have finally opened in many parts of the country with Ranjit Tewaria's "Bell Bottom" hitting the screens last Thursday. Apart from the fact that it is Akshay Kumar's movie with a trailer that promised it be a racy entertainer, it was also in the news for other reasons as well. Apparently, a few nations in the Middle East such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar & Kuwait had banned it due to factual errors over the plot of the movie. Based on a series of hijacks that took place in the 1980s with the emphasis more on Indian Airlines IC421 hijacked in 1984, it seemed like the script had the scope to become a engaging flick. So were they able to do justice to this spy thriller???

Set in 1984, the film unfolds with the news that yet another Indian aircraft has been hijacked & the Indira Gandhi (Lara Dutta) Government were at their wits end. These repeated events meant that they were left with no choice at most instances apart from agree to the demands of the hijackers lest anyone gets injured. Hoping to put an end to this unending saga, RAW Chief Santook (Adil Hussain) decided to bring in his best agent, Anshul Malhotra codenamed 'Bell Bottom' (Akshay) to negate the threat. With a personal score to settle, Anshul chalks out a plan to neutralize the hijackers but the Govt were keen on a diplomatic course of action especially since Pakistan has been extremely supportive in dealing with such hostage situations on our behalf. 

This is Ranjit Tewaria's second venture after "Lucknow Central" (which I haven't watched) & the script was penned by Aseem Arrora (known for "Nanhe Jaisalmer", "Chhalang" etc) & Parveen Sheikh (known for "Bajrangi Bhaijaan", "Phantom" etc). The thread of the movie sounded interesting but when it was recreated on the screen, it lacked the impact that was expected of it. It failed to create the edge of the seat experience & the whole plot as such felt trivialized with the climax just hurriedly shot. At the same time, it doesnt test our patience & the credit for that primarily goes to Akki. On the technical sides, the makeup department did a praise worthy job to make Lara Dutta appear as Indira Gandhi while the BGM by Daniel George was also fine. 

Whenever we have Akki in a thriller, we can rest assured that more often than not, it would be a paisa vasool experience. Over here as well, even at the age of 53 he is fit as a fiddle & has done justice to his part (hmm..it would be cool to see him in a Mission Impossible or Bourne Series type of flicks). As for the rest of the cast, Lara Dutta was impressive as Indira Gandhi, Adil Hussain was solid as usual, Zain Khan as Doddy was good while the others were ok.

Verdict: Being a Akshay Kumar movie, we would have naturally expected it to be a classy spy thriller like "Baby" etc. However, the screenplay wasn't quite upto the mark & failed to quite provide the thrill especially since the story had the scope. In short, give it a try!!!

Rating: 2.5/5

Regards...Ben