An open street with no rules, principles

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Bhindi Bazaar begins in the crowded bylanes of Mumbai’s famous Bhindi Bazaar, explaining how the people and the street work. Weaving into the other parts of the street, the story begins with the hero (Gautam Sharma) visiting a plush building in Malabar Hill. As he enters a Swanky apartment he looks at the chessboard placed on the table.

From here director Ankush Bhatt takes off and deftly weaves the story with a game of chess with Tezz and Shroff (Kay Kay Menon), the gang lord of a food chain. Narrating the story of two rival gang of pickpockets, the Muslim gang headed by Pawan Malhotra and the Hindu gang headed by Piyush Mishra, the gangsters build up their empire with a bunch of street urchins trained to pickpockets. With the passage of time, the kids grow up as one extended family, albeit with hidden rivalries, jealousies and ambitions. The street spares no one as it has no rules and no principles. Every move of the pawn made by the players connects with a flashback and the story moves forward.
The deft moves of the pawn capture the slice of sleazy lanes of Bhindi Bazaar, which overlooks the plush Malabar Hill apartments. The hunger for power is the only motive among every member of the rival gang as each one tries to finish the other. The friendship of Tabrez or Tezz with Fateh Alam (Prashant Narayanan) and their gang from childhood has been brilliantly established.
This is director Ankush Bhatt’s debut in Bollywood, (he has already made a Marathi film), and he keeps you hooked with pacy and interesting moments and a fantastic narration of every character of Bhindi Bazaar.
There are a few loose ends in the narration of the characters, which the director failed to notice. Especially the role played by Shabana (Vedita Pratap). The director could have made better use of the veteran actor Jackie Shroff who does a cameo in the film. An excellent actor like Kay Kay has the role of playing chess in the film.
Debutant Gautam Sharma shows a lot of promise. Prashant Narayanan has done his role with aplomb. Pawan Malhotra as Mamu, and Piyush Mishra as Pandey, are excellent. Deepti Naval’s acting is superb. Shilpa Shukla is passable, debutant Vedita Singh is good.
The item number by Caterina Lopez, a distant cousin of singer Jennifer Lopez, is passable. Music director Sandeep-Surya could have done a better job. On the whole an interesting watch on the weekend.