‘Bahut Hua Samman’ Review : A Lengthy Compilation of Backbencher Jokes

I stumbled across this film while browsing for a light Sunday pick, and I clicked ‘Play’ when I saw Raghav Juyal. Bahut Hua Samman was released on Hotstar in 2020. Watch the official trailer here. Hotstar VIP members can watch the movie here.

Here is a spoiler-free review of the two-hour long movie.

The Somewhat-Plot :

Oh boy, looks like writers bunked their engineering classes and wrote this in the cafeteria.

Bony (Raghav Juyal) and Fundoo (Abhishek Chauhan) are two backbenchers from an engineering college. That’s it, that is their entire character. They fail to graduate and are frustrated and jobless. They get roped in by the ‘campus loony’ into robbing a bank. The campus loony (as mentioned in the movie’s official description) is Baba Bakchod, played by Sanjay Mishra. That is his whole character – sanki, loony, eccentric. He also possesses a rich gaali vocabulary. Its similar to his character from Phans Gaye Re Obama, but its bland this time.

For the first thirty minutes Baba and the two dummies keep planning and trying to be funny. A lot of dialogs are from politics-related memes – aap chronology samajhiye, sab shantipurvak tareekey se hoga. In multiple scenes, the two boys are seen dabbing at Baba. Dabs? Seriously? NO. Even the “tohfa kabool karo” de-pants line in 3-Idiots was funnier.

Anyway, their get-rich-quick scheme backfires and the two boys are grilled by femme-cop Bobby Tiwari (Nidhi Singh). She is also trying to have a baby, while navigating a criminal network of dhongi Godmen, sand mafia, robbers and politicians. While Nidhi Singh is amazing in the role, the movie falls flat while trying to send a social message. Ram Kapoor also makes an appearance, and is criminally underused.

Gaalis, hits to the crotch, engineering lingo, hostel-campus mess, Biharis eating gutka, Biharis talking while eating gutka, rapey jail-mate. Its just cliché after cliché. The bank they rob is called MC-BC bank. Geddit? Geddit? Funny because GAALI!

The movie picks up its pace in the last thirty minutes, and that is the most entertaining part of the movie. Alas, it is rushed. I almost gave up and closed the tab after an hour, and I doubt viewers will even sit through the boring film to get to the end.

Vintage touches :

The film used a lot of elements found in old comic books. Scene transitions are framed as comic panels. It uses onomatopoeia in the form of noise-words on the screen, a delightful reminder of childhood days of Doga and Naagraj. Bappi Lahiri and RD Burman’s music shines during otherwise dull scenes. Nazia Hassan’s trippy voice accompanying a fight-scene in the climax is so refreshing. It worked wonderfully!

Rating :