'Babli Bouncer' review: Lacks the punch

Babli Bouncer

Hindi (Hotstar)

Director: Madhur Bhandarkar

Cast: Tamannaah Bhatia, Abhishek Bajaj, Saurabh Shukla

Rating: 2/5

Madhur Bhandarkar was once popular for telling hard-hitting female-centric stories (‘Chandini Bar’ and ‘Fashion’). But he is a pale shadow of himself and his latest ‘Babli Bouncer’, starring Tamannah Bhatia, is a proof of his waning form. The coming-of-age comedy drama is a flat film that tries to execute too many ideas without success.

Tamannaah plays Babli, an uneducated, stereotypical small town girl. Hailing from a Haryanvi village near Delhi, where most men train to become bouncers, Babli lacks 'womanly' qualities such as cooking and being docile. However, she is gifted with immense physical strength.

With no hopes of her doing well in academics, her parents try to get her hitched but Babli falls for Viraj (Abhishek Bajaj), who is a sophisticated urban boy and son of the teacher in the village. Babli decides to go to Delhi to confess her feelings. Even as she does that, Babli lands a job as a bouncer in a Delhi-NCR night club.

It’s an interesting idea to explore the story of a female bouncer. However, the plot is cluttered with cliches, forced humour and a formulaic village-girl-falling-for-the-city-boy idea. The film takes too long to get going and has only few bright moments.

In the second half, 'Babli Bouncer' shifts focus towards Babli’s quest to get further educated when Viraj gives her a reality check by rejecting her. The visuals are ordinary and the songs are forgettable. The story never highlights the struggles of Babli being a female bouncer in a male-dominated profession.

Tamannaah gives a decent performance as the bubbly, funny and strong Babli and aces the Haryanvi accent. Saurabh Shukla as Babli’s father is as solid as ever. The film highlights some of the conservative practices enforced on women but ‘Babli Bouncer’ needed a cohesive story.