Bangistan: It's all smoke and no fire

Bangistan
Hindi (U/A)
Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Pulkit Samrat, Jacqueline Fernandez
Director: Karan Anshuman
Rating: 2 stars (**)

Riteish Deshmukh sports a beard that touches his chest and snaps at everyone who associates the bush of growth with Islam. Of course, he is a Muslim, and a potential jihadi at that.

Pulkit Samrat is an aspiring actor whose histrionics don’t take him beyond the local Ramleela. A Hindu fanatic, he flares at everything Muslim and is eventually “nominated” as the suicide bomber of ‘Maa Ka Dal’.

Both our men belong to the imaginary, communal land of Bangistan where saffron-green battles are the order of the day.

Barring a few chuckles and zany moments — where imams chomp on ‘FcDonalds’, wash them down with diet drinks and curse America in the next breath — Bangistan doesn’t quite get the political satire right.

The two men reach Krakow in Poland where religious leaders from across the world have descended in every possible shape, size and headgear — to talk world peace, what else!
The only thing that amuses in the second half is a bomb-making session, with explosives being advertised by semi-clad women (a la telebrands), complete with discounts. Now, that’s some bang for your buck.

Jacqueline Fernandez shows up as a bar girl, mouths some gyan on being happy without religion, shakes a leg and disappears.

Pulkit starts out well, but hams it up in the end. Riteish, surprisingly, lacks his usual energy and looks tired.

At the end, a decent no-bombs-please premise is blown up by pedestrian treatment.