Badmaash Company

Rating : 5/10
Release Date : 7th May, 2010
Time : 144 minutes
Director & Writer : Parmeet Sethi; Music : Pritam
Starring : Shahid Kapoor, Anushka, Meiyang Chang, Vir Das, Pawan Malhotra, Anupam Kher

A movie of two halves, the first being breezy and at times even likeable but the second becoming inexplicably sentimental and slow. Overall, when you left the hall you weren’t quite sure of what you saw and what to make of it

A tale of four friends, with Shahid being the brains of the group, the guy who came up with the big ideas which would get them rich quickly. His girlfriend Anushka, is the designated eye candy (does a decent job of it as well) while Meiyang and Vir are the designated sidekicks. Shahid doesn’t agree with his father’s philosophy of working diligently in one firm for 25 years and cannot wait to start his own business. He comes up with a great idea for his first venture, gets seed capital from his America based uncle (Pawan Malhotra) and he and his friends are off and running. When the idea runs its course, he decides to move to USA and they begin trying new ideas even there. Will they be successful, will they be able to stay together, will they still remain as single minded in pursuit of the same wealth are some of the questions / developments of the second half.


Its interesting as a premise, raises some pertinent questions which are relevant to the generation of today. But strangely it doesn’t connect and here I blame the character development. Its hard to understand how a character like Shahid changes, one moment walking out of his father’s house because of a difference in their philosophy towards life, the other craving his blessing. One day chasing wealth single-mindedly, the other craving respect (izzat ki roti). One day being amiable, breezy but the other becoming irritable, cranky when things go wrong. I wish all this had been explained more clearly, that we could’ve made the journey along with Shahid and felt the same way. But here we are informed about the trip rather than invited to share the ride.


The first idea that Shahid comes up with is truly great, everything seems very realistic, no one gets hurt. However, the other ones, in USA, are not so clean, here there is an element of dishonesty, they swindle people. And there are other things which happen which aren’t so real. The language, clothes and behaviour of the four doesn’t match the era they’re shown to be living in. There are issues raised like the ‘God Complex’ which are just lightly brought up, not delved into in any detail (for a more interesting film touching on this topic watch Malice). Anushka’s & Shahid’s relationship is also not truly explained. The one character who remains consistent is Vir, so if anyone connects, its him.


I found it interesting that YRF made this film after Rocket Singh. Both touched upon pretty relevant themes for today’s youth, both encourage entrepreneurs, self-made destiny, friendship etc and are far removed from some of the recent fluffy films from the same stable. However, I don’t think in this one they got the balance between fun and work right. Which, by the way, is another interesting potential topic for a film…