Cast: Jassi Jasraj, Pretti Jhangiani, Shabaz Khan, Rana Ranbir, Sardar Sohni, Kusum, Kawalpreet, Bobby Sandhu.

Directed By: Gautam Anil Nagrath

Story: Baljinder Singh

Rating: **

Be it Hollywood or Bollywood, experimentation and exploring up new genres to excel, has always been an inseparable part of any every cine industry. And now with a constant growth of regional cinema in Indian sub-continent, this trend of experimentation and diverging from ongoing or rather in-vogue style of movie making seems to be trickling down to regional cine industries also.

So with a relatively divergent cinematic idea at its core, the much talked about debut flick of singer turned actor Jassi Jasraj, "Bikkar Bai Sentimental" made it to region's multiplexes today and fetched a footfall of around 6 % on its opening day.

"Bikkar Bai Sentimental" is a cine tale which revolves around the life of a socially awakened and responsible common man, who has a zero tolerance for any and every kind of corruption, and his tryst with a good for nothing socio-political system, which compels him to turn into a self appointed messiah of the masses.

As soon as the story takes off, it showcases the life of an honest and virtuous MNC employee, Vikram Singh (Jassi Jasraj) with a happy family, comprising a lovable wife, Karamjit (Preeti Jhanghiani) and a daughter. Besides being a virtuous man, Vikram is a staunch supporter of honesty and truth, and fosters a firm fascination for morally right things.

And at times, this attitude of his lands him in a deadlock like situations where he ends up locking horns with the people who thinks the other way. But the the problem takes the shape of a disaster, when this over indulgence of Vikram starts impacting his personal life, and compels our calm and composed Vikram Singh to transform into "Bikkar Bai" the self appointed messiah of downtrodden who assumes the responsibility of correcting the corrupt system with his "15 Kilo Ka Pawa."

Undoubtedly, "Bikkar Bai Sentimental" is a kind of reformist cine tale with a very noble idea at its core, where an uncompromising common man assumes the responsibility of reforming the system. In fact it won't be wrong to say that, contrary to the in-vogue movie making trend going on in Punjwood, "Bikkar Bai Sentimental" tries to swim against the prevailing direction of the current.

But at the same time this noble attempt turns into a "melodramatic preachy saga" where preaching seems to be triumphing at the cost of entertainment coefficient, subsequently sacrificing the latter. The initial plot of "Bikkar Bai Sentimental" tries to provide a firm and extended intro to the attitude and persona of the characters in centre, but from other perspective somewhere down the line this extended feature turns out to be the prime mover of dragging in the first half of the movie.

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Besides this another thing which may leave you scratching your head, is the incorporation of some of the characters in the movie without any just reasons like the character of Rana Ranbir which looked like more of a parallel running comic delight (while not being part of the story in centre), which has been tailored in the movie just for heck of having some light moments.

In nutshell inspite of having a very noble idea at it's core, wordsmith of "Bikkar Bai Sentmental" ,Baljinder Singh, has somewhat failed in crafting together the things in an adroit manner.

As far as screenplay of "Bikkar Bai Sentimental" is concerned then, it's again a let down, but it'll not be justified to blame the screenplay writers for the same, because with a badly tailored script it becomes difficult to paint a captivating screenplay. As soon as the story takes off it tries to introduce us Bikkar Bai's principles, but in due course it pushes the entire tale into the dark pit of dragging.

As the frames roll ahead, things start getting even more convoluted with some of the characters making it to the screen without any good reasons and formal or informal intro. With majority of shooting done in the Chandigarh and it's peripheral areas, "Bikkar Bai Sentimental" looks quite natural and easy to assimilate with for the natives of the region. Although the screenplay of, "Bikkar Bai Sentimental", looks like a vehicle moving on the jaggy surface throughout the run time but by the time it reaches the climax it somehow manages to get a bit stable.

On the other hand dialogues are more of a preachy nature and constantly try to stir your soul and psyche, by tapping on the some of the socially relevant issues which every common man fosters in his heart.

While being in the directors chair, Gautam Anil Nagrath upto great extent has failed in keeping things under tabs. Be it the flow of the narration, incorporation and portrayal of the characters or the performances of the protagonists, everything seems to be master of it's own will, with no outside trailblazing for a better end result.

With soothing carols like "Ki Kariye, Sajna" and music tracks like "Jatt Senti" and "Main Fan Bhagat Singh Da" dabbled in treacle of peppiness music of "Bikkar Bai Sentimental" is just OK and may succeed in impressing the masses.

Well in performance department, Jassi Jasraj has thoroughly tried his level best to emerge as He-Man of Punjwood, but in due course, looks somewhat struggling to discriminate between acting and melodrama. In the first half it's over-expressiveness of, Jassi, which overpowers his acting potential, but as the movie rolls ahead this singer turned actor gets hold of his character's spirit. On the whole a good attempt from this budding Dabangg of Punjwood.

Preeti in Bikkar Bai's wife's character is just OK. Besides this, Shabaz Khan as an honest IPS officer has also succeeded in doing justice to his character. After many impressive cine stints, Rana Ranbir again succeeds in securing the accolades, although his character in the movie looked somewhat obtruded and under played, but in spite of that actor has firmly succeeded in giving his best.

To sum up, "Bikkar Bai Sentimental" is a reformist kind of cine tale which, up till great extent differs from the other Punjabi cine flicks of recent times, but because of average (or rather below average) script it may not succeed in delivering what it is expected too and what it could have.