Director: Anand Tiwari and Amrit Pal Singh
Rating: ***1/2
Platform: Amazon Prime
The story revolves around Radhe (Ritvik Bhowmik), who is an Indian classical singer and a pop star Tamanna (Shreya Chaudhary). Both the characters are of different personalities, however, despite all the differences when they meet, they fall for each other. But their romance splits by the issues of family and culture, thus they set out on a journey of self-realization.
Radhe and Tamanna both have different perceptions about each other's music, which their dialogues can actually explain well. Radhe says, "wearing fancy clothes and shouting is not music", to which Tamanna retorts, "someone strangling like a goat is not music too."
After a period, they discover each other's talent in a concert, and Radhe joins Tamanna to make a pop song. But he is still scared of his grandfather, Pandit Radhe Mohan Rathod (Naseeruddin Shah), a well-known singer who is very strict and believes that the purity of classical music should never be harmed by modern music. When Radhe's grandfather comes to know about this, a good amount of drama follows that will keep your eyes glued to the screen until the last second of the last episode.
Directed by Anand Tiwari, the story presents a cute love story of two contradicting personalities and their life with lots of ups and downs. The story has enough drama and comic elements to keep you hooked.
Although, the screenplay focuses a little extra on classical music and riyaz than it requires but Ritwik and Shreya's top-notch performance makes you ignore even the slightest mistakes.
Naseeruddin Shah is fantastic as ever as an old and strict classical musician Rajasthani musician and his versatility can't be praised enough. Atul Kulkarni as Digvijay also brings a unique twist to the tale Kunaal Roy Kapur and Rahul Kumar make you laugh with their impeccable comic timing.
The music front is well handled by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy is a mix of Indian classical and pop that does offer a new experience and touches your heart. The vocals by Javed Ali, Jonita Gandhi, Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty, Mame Khan, and Dhananjay Mhaskar are a treat to the ears.
The cinematography is great and the film offers a fine tour of the breathtaking Havelis and Mahals of Jodhpur that is a delight to watch.
Overall, Bandish Bandits is a quirky and crunchy love story set up on the backdrop of classical VS pop music that also offers stunning visuals with a good dose of laughter. Watch it if you want to see an entertaining light-hearted film in the age of suspense-thrillers.
