Bittoo Boss:Punju Video Tadka

With a liberal smattering of Punju shaadi vaadi,video shideo lingo as rich and indigestible as greasy parrrr-on-tha, Bittoo Boss smacks of a story with Punjab da puttar honest, likeable heart which lacks finesse in its storytelling.

Bittoo(Pulkit Samrat), a rugged, bearded son of truck driver from a  Punjab village,shoots “seski”wedding videos and dreams of making it big.Predictably,he falls for a girl at a wedding  and somehow(unconvincingly) finds himself  getting trapped  into a blue film making racket.

Co written with Gautam Mehra ,debut director, Suapavitra Babul’s good hearted story starts off at a painfully slow pace at a wedding that is at a standstill literally, with baraatis waiting for the famous videographer,Bitto Boss who makes a dream entry on a bright yellow scooter.

Bittoo is instantly likeable with his affable behavior and enthusiastic camera work. One wouldn’t mind the camera on him more than the documentary like real faces and dialogue that make the world very real. Enters a totally authentic Punjabi kudi(Amita Pathak) who makes you wonder why Bittu would follow her around with his lenses. But then, love is blind and so are you out of curiosity for Bittu’s future.

Yes, you care for Bittu. That’s the good part. Like he says in the movie, “emotion pakadna hai”,his character has got it. Here’s the bad part. The screenplay lacks pace and structure. It meanders with Bitto’s love story with the wedding belle and only gets interesting post interval,when it’s no longer about the girl but him losing himself in the big, bad,blue world.

The characters that come into play, get even more real, more documentary like, except for Mohan Kapur who plays father to a girl bent on losing her virginity. The story finally gathers both focus, pace and a decent style, only to get filmy and clichéd in the end.

The script, reminiscent of “Band, Baaja,Baraat”,“Love, sex aur Dhokha” and “Ragini MMS” in its style and authencity,had the potential of being almost as good.Dialogues are both the strength and the weakness of the movie. There are some good and witty  lines like “desh ki abaadi ki jad Simla mein hai” and philosophical lines on Honeymoon bedroom acts being “jismana action nahin, balki do dilon ka aur ruhon ka connection hai”. However the lines  take the Punjabi lingo so seriously that it irritates, just the way a nonstop family chatter would initially entertain, then rankle a bystander in a train compartment. There is a sudden change in tone from light banter to intense arguments between the hero and the heroine, that fails to get the desired impact.

Music(Raghav Sachar) is fun with controversial lyrics(Kumar) like “Bittoo sabki lega” and “kick lag gayi…ankha teri sheeshe si”,likely to be  popular at weddings, though not as catchy as “Ainwy ainwy” from Band Baaja Baraat.The song “Man jaaga” is poignantly written by Aseem Ahmed Abbasid.. Dhoke se nazar ke, Jhonke se umar ke, Ret ke mahal sa, Deh gaya hai bikhar ke...'').The title track,”Kabootar” is pretty apt with lyrics like “ tu kabootar main kabootar, duniya kabootar khaana..Apna apna daana chugke, sabne hai udh jaana..”. The camera work (Maneesh Bhatt) and edit (Abhishek Seth) are decent and in keeping with the story.

Amongst the actors, Pulkit Samrat rules as the endearing, good simpleton. The rest are passable except for good supporting performance from sidekick (Ashok Pathak) who loves grinning and repeating “shakal se dikhta nahin”.Mohan Kapur makes a welcome comeback to acting.Amita Pathak does little to add to both presence and performance.

All in all, Bittoo Boss is a good and bad but not ugly debut by director, Supavitra Babul. Overdose of Punjabi tadka, as unpolished as a shaadi video but all said and done, with decent emotional tug. Likeable.