Bol Bachchan

Bol Bachchan

This week’s major Bollywood release “Bol Bachchan,” Hindi for “Talk Bachchan,” is a remake of 1979 Bollywood classic “Gol Maal,” widely regarded as one of the best comedies in Indian cinema.

Starring Abhishek Bachchan and Ajay Devgan, this comedy of errors traces the journey of meek orphan Abbas (Mr. Bachchan) who, in an attempt to hide his Muslim lineage, fools his new employer into believing he’s a Hindu named Abhishek Bachchan.

Chaos and confusion ensue when Abbas is spotted at a Muslim prayer meeting.

There were high expectations for the movie, given the reputation of “Gol Maal,” but it failed to live up to them in the eyes of most critics.

Here’s a roundup of what they had to say about “Bol Bachchan”:

“This one’s strictly for Bollywood junkies whose funny bones are easy to tickle,” NDTV’s film critic Saibal Chatterjee wrote, adding that it was devoid of any “genuine comic highs.” He also labeled it as a complete “rip off” of the 1979 classic.

The performances of the star cast didn’t impress him either: “The acting is generally so unabashedly hammy that you might be forgiven for wondering whether you have wandered into a pigsty,” Mr. Chatterjee noted.

“Be warned…Bol Bachchan is a comedy so absurd that it could reduce you to tears of despair,” opined Mr. Chatterjee, who gave the movie  a paltry one-and-a-half stars out of five.

Rediff.com’s Sukanya Verma largely agreed, adding that classics like “Gol Maal” are “revered realizations that need to be preserved not tampered with.”

Director Rohit Shetty, she noted, “picks up all the major plot points of the original only to alter it with his boisterous, cheesy, slapstick and visually flashy sensibilities.”

Disappointed with the comedy’s “lackluster” dialogue and “silly” execution, the critic went on to highlight that the film is marred with offensive language, “numerous innuendoes, crude gestures and frequent suggestions of homophobia.”

The A-list star cast also failed to impress. With the exception of Archana Puran Singh and Mr. Bachchan, Ms. Verma was highly critical of the others, singling out Mr. Devgan for being “suitably gruff,” “goofy” and unbearable.

“Bol Bachchan is dispensable cinema, forgotten almost immediately after it’s over,” Ms. Verma wrote, giving the film two-and-a-half stars out of five.

“All talk, no substance,” is how critic Shilpa Jamkhandikar described the film on Reuters’ Bollywood blog India Masala.

“Unlike Gol Maal, which was intelligent comedy, free from slapstick and crass humour, Bol Bachchan caters to the lowest common denominator,” she wrote, adding that the film was botched by “a liberal dose of item songs, inane dialogue, and of course, exploding vehicles.”

While the critic was seemingly impressed by Mr. Bachchan “earnest” role, she dismissed Mr. Devgan “expressionless” performance.