For such a likeable ensemble cast, it is almost tragic how Bhai Tera Star Hai never grows funnier, notes Mayur Sanap.
Key Points
- Bhai Tera Star Hai features Raghav Juyal in his first outing as solo lead.
- Raghav gets a few amusing one-liners delivered in his trademark deadpan style, but the film around him lets him down.
- Much of the humour relies on random meta gags instead of actual jokes that would make you chuckle.
There are several moments in Bhai Tera Star Hai where the characters throw around the word ‘bhasad‘.
The Hindi slang for chaos becomes the film’s guiding principle as a dozen characters keep crossing paths over the course of a single Christmas night in London.
On paper, it sounds like the setup for a lively comedy of errors. Sadly though, the film becomes an error in comedy that leaves you feeling more exasperated than entertained.
Bhai Tera Star Hai: The Plot
The film follows aspiring actor Ajay Singh (Raghav Juyal), who gets into a messy situation after he fails to repay 10,000 pounds he owes to a shady bar owner named Fatty (Sanjay Kapoor).
Fatty has no intention of waiting, so he orders his trusted aide JD (Vikalp Mehta) to stick to Ajay until the money is recovered before the clock strikes 12:30 am. This deadline adds the race-against-time element to the chaos that unfolds through the night.
Ajay’s desperate attempts to arrange the money pulls one character after another into his problems.
His soft-spoken girlfriend Roshni (Niharika NM), his outspoken sister Natasha (Parvathy Omanakuttan), JD’s suspicious girlfriend (Tina Desai), Roshni’s hot-headed brother Sid (Vivan Bhatena), Sid’s potential love interest Laila (Barkha Singh), a goofy police officer (Chandan Roy Sanyal), and Fatty’s Punjabi wife Mandy (Niki Aneja Walia) all find themselves trapped inside Ajay’s increasingly tangled web of lies.
There is genuine ambition in this structure.
Director Vivek Agrawal deserves credit for trying to experiment within the mainstream comedy space. The problem is that the experiment never grows beyond its surface.
The direction lacks freshness where it matters most. The humour rarely surprises, the emotional beats are all empty and the screenplay confuses movement with momentum.
The film is presented to resemble one continuous take, to create an illusion of uninterrupted narrative. There are some fluid transitions and a Lokah-like match cut, where one transition moves from the fizz of a champagne glass to a cricket ball lying on the floor.
For a while, I admired the attempt. Then the novelty wears off.
The screenplay throws characters into awkward situations every few minutes and expects the confusion to generate laughs. Instead, the jokes begin to repeat themselves. Every misunderstanding leads to another misunderstanding. Every lie creates another lie. After a point, the film starts running in circles.
For such a likeable cast, it is almost tragic how the film never grows funnier. The chaos simply keeps getting louder, as the film mistakes noise for comedy.
Raghav Juyal is watchable
Raghav Juyal is in fine form as Ajay, whose name is mined for cheap laughs, with lines like, ‘Tu woh Ajay hai jiske kismat mein jhol hai, Kajol nahi.’
Another meta reference reveals that Ajay is preparing to audition for Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan as one of Salman Khan’s brothers, an obvious nod to Raghav’s own career.
Raghav’s comic timing and naturally awkward screen presence works well for a character constantly trapped inside problems of his own making. He gets a few amusing one-liners delivered in his trademark deadpan style, but the film lets him down.
The supporting cast deserved far better material than this.
Niharika NM brings an easy charm to Roshni, but the character spends most of the film reacting to Ajay’s mistakes instead of having an identity of her own.
It’s nice to see Parvathy Omanakuttan back on screen and she gives Natasha enough confidence to make her presence felt.
Barkha Singh, Vivan Bhatena, Tina Desai and Niki Aneja Walia pop in and out of the story as the plot demands, but none of them leave an impression.
Sanjay Kapoor seems to be having fun playing the eccentric Fatty, who delivers his lines with the right amount of swagger.
Chandan Roy Sanyal’s track as a police officer feels like another ingredient thrown into an already overcrowded screenplay without adding much to the overall narrative.
No stardom, only boredom
Comedy of errors works best when every misunderstanding pushes the narrative towards an explosive payoff. Here, the chaos simply drags. The situations become bigger, but not funnier.
Much of the humour relies on random meta gags instead of actual jokes that would make you chuckle.
At one point, Ajay says, ‘Meri entry late ho sakti hai, lekin disappointing nahi.’
It is a cheeky nod to Raghav’s first outing as a leading man after years of playing supporting roles. In another one, Sanjay Kapoor’s Fatty is advised to stay fit like a fellow Punjabi Anil Kapoor.
The background score is a collection of sound cues borrowed from Instagram reels, constantly telling viewers when to laugh.
Towards the end, the film suddenly throws in two back-to-back songs with no narrative purpose. That’s when you know it has completely run out of ideas.
If the aim was absurd comedy, the result is simply absurd.
