There's
a
longish
sequence
in
an
American
eatery
in
the
second-half
of
this
deeply
flawed
and
yet
refreshingly
cool
urbane
casual
and
yet
highly
cinematic
work
where
Shahid
Kapoor's
Karan,
by
now
on
the
road
to
seemingly
irredeemable
moral
degeneration
is
told
by
his
partner,
played
by
newcomer
Vir
Das,
that
he
wants
out.
The
way
that
sequence
progresses
and
the
manner
in
which
the
two
actors
play
out
a
conventional
friends-falling-apart
moment,
just
makes
you
forgive
all
the
excesses
of
inflated
self-worth
that
the
script
suffers
from
in
the
last
90
minutes
of
this
endearing
though
exasperating
experience.
Badmaash
Company
is
a
film
that
is
too
smart
for
its
own
good.
The
main
characters,
four
friends
bonded
by
the
collective
will
to
grow
rich
overnight,
go
through
a
series
of
caper
experiences.
Not
all
of
it
is
either
convincing
or
even
interesting.
After
a
point,
we
know
exactly
where
this
quartet
is
hurling
to.
And
the
slide
out
of
moral
degeneration
is
never
touching
enough
to
make
us
shed
a
tear
for
these
misguided
over-reachers.
The
doom
comes
none
too
soon,
and
then
the
narrative
proceeds
without
a
proper
graph.
By
the
time
Karan
(Shahid
Kapoor)'s
spunky
girl
Bulbul
(Anushka
Sharma)
leaves
him
the
script
begins
to
look
like
one
of
those
subverted
morality
tales
from
the
house
of
the
Bhatts
where
the
heroes
talk
with
clenched
fists
and
heroines
weep
in
their
pillows
as
their
companions
come
home
in
a
drunken
stupor.
Badmaash
Company
We've
been
here
before.
But
wait.
There
is
a
sense
of
intuitive
cockiness
about
the
narrative
which
just
sees
the
film's
improbable
mixture
of
the
trendy
and
the
trite(in
how
many
ways
will
the
upright
father
ask
the
devil-may-care
son
to
leave
home
as
the
mother
bites
her
lips
and
wrings
her
hands???)
to
the
final
stretch
of
predictable
moral
redemption.
There
is
a
sense
of
the
predictable
and
yet
the
unpredictable
in
the
storytelling.
Debutant
director
Parmeet
Sethi's
screenplay
is
one
of
those
things
that
you
want
to
believe
merely
because
it
sounds
so
smart
on
paper.
But
not
all
of
this
makes
complete
or
even
incomplete
sense.
The
climax
about
colour-bleeding
shirts
being
sold
to
America
as
the
Next
Best
Thing
is
much
too
far-fetched
to
work
even
as
a
part
of
a
con
caper.
Nonetheless
Badmaash
Company
has
a
lot
going
for
itself.
The
first-half
when
Karan
meets
Bulbul,
Chandu
and
Chang
to
create
an
instantly
materialistic
energy,
gets
you
interested
in
these
out-of-control
lives.
You
don't
quite
empathize
with
their
overweening
goals.
But
at
least
they
seem
to
know
their
minds,
even
if
on
occasions
the
plot
doesn't
seem
to
know
what
its
doing.
There's
something
pitch-friendly
about
the
four
actors
and
the
way
they
tackle
the
plot
-material
which
never
seems
fully
sure
of
itself.
It's
sometimes
cool
sometimes
over-reaching
itself.
Badmaash
Company
If
the
film
holds
together
it's
because
of
the
bonafide
enthusiasm
and
unconditional
surrender
to
the
proceedings
of
the
actors.
Shahid
Kapoor
pitches
in
another
perfectly
poised
and
subtle
performance
even
though
his
character's
graph
gets
blurred
towards
the
end.
You
can't
stop
caring
for
Karan's
character
because
Shahid
doesn't
let
go
of
his
centre
even
when
the
narrative
gets
shaky.
Anushka
Sharma
in
a
stunning
makeover
conveys
her
character's
spirit
and
spunk
through
her
well-toned
body
language
and
that
twinkle
in
the
eye.
Tragically
a
lot
of
her
speech
and
morality,
and
this
goes
for
a
lot
of
film's
careless
periodicity,
is
not
1990s
(the
film's
setting)
at
all.
Vir
Das
as
the
film
buff
with
a
roving
eye
negotiates
his
character
with
gentle
care.
Here's
one
actor
who
knows
what
he's
doing
even
when
his
character
doesn't.
And
Meiyang
Chang
as
the
chinky-eyed
alcohol
guzzling
Gangtok-guy
seems
made
for
his
character.
Badmaash
Company
is
an
extremely
smart
and
smart-looking
film.
But
its
sassy
all-knowing
tone
cannot
hide
a
certain
bankruptcy
of
genuinely
inventive
ideas.
This
is
a
fatally-flawed
film
about
seriously
flawed
characters.
The
packaging
is
glamorous
but
not
over-done.
The
dialogues
convey
a
ring
of
truth
without
bending
backwards
to
be
cool.
And
though
guilty
of
extravagant
flights
of
fancy
(the
way
our
quartet
of
protagonists
plunder
the
American
Dream
can
only
be
called
wishful
thinking)
Badmaash
Company
has
enough
going
for
itself
to
make
it
an
experience
worth
our
while.
And
never
mind
the
blind
spots.
Whoever
said
life
in
the
movies
was
meant
to
be
a
bed
of
roses?
Story first published: Tuesday, May 11, 2010, 16:14 [IST]