Nowadays, people from the Hindi film industry seem to have a strange perception that the action genre is incomplete without incorporating a patriotic theme. As a result, following the success of last year’s Pathaan (2023), the industry has been churning one patriotic action film after another, using the same hackneyed tropes and formulaic storytelling, which has grown redundant, tedious, and monotonous, with notable examples including IB71 (2023), Tiger 3 (2023), Tejas (2023), Operation Valentine (2024), Fighter (2024), Yodha (2024), etc. It’s as if they’re afraid that, unless they endanger India, they won’t be able to make a profit from their films. Ali Abbas Zafar’s newest offering, Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, joins the ranks of mediocre action films that have been pouring out of the Hindi film industry as of late.
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan begins with the film’s unhinged masked villain, Kabir (Prithviraj Sukumaran), stealing a top-secret defense weapon known as Karan Kavach from the Indian army in the Northern Himalayas. This weapon, which is an iron dome (similar to Israel’s), is used to protect India from invasions by neighboring countries such as Pakistan and China. As a result, Colonel Adil Shekhar Azad (Ronit) concludes that the best way to deal with the psychopath is to enlist the help of two other psychopaths for the mission. They are Firoz, aka Freddy, aka Bade (Akshay Kumar), and Rakesh, aka Rocky, aka Chote (Tiger Shroff), Colonel Azad’s two most trusted ex-soldiers who were court-martialed years ago for failing to obey orders on a mission. They are joined by two one-dimensional female characters, Captain Misha (Manushi Chhillar) and IT expert Pam (Alaya F), in their quest to recover the weapon and prevent Kabir from causing harm to the country.
The presence of a formidable antagonist is a fundamental and indispensable element of any quality action film. The challenge of creating a compelling villain is making the audience empathize with his plight by showing us the wrongs that have happened to him, making them understand his situation, and justifying why he has chosen this path—even though it is evil and morally reprehensible. Unfortunately, in Bade Miyan Chote Miyan, the makers fail to do that, which ultimately harms the film. Kabir is outraged over a failed business deal with the Indian army. His response? Destroy the entire country. It comes off as utterly illogical and idiotic and feels like a forceful inclusion of a patriotic angle.
The makers spend the majority of the film’s runtime and budget on the action, which disappoints the most. Because of the repetitious action choreography, the sequences lacked anything memorable or distinctive—every scene included the same abundance of explosions, jerky editing, and slow-motion shots of Freddy and Rocky shooting while walking side by side. These elaborate combat scenes gradually lose their appeal and become a snoozefest.
Any buddy cop comedy film relies significantly on the chemistry between the leads, which was lacking in this film. Akshay Kumar and Tiger Shroff felt like a misfit and an unnatural pair; their banter felt forced and lacked a sense of humor, wit, or charm, and their performances were lackluster, especially Akshay Kumar’s. A man once hailed for his comic timing and improvisational skills was seen struggling with dialogue delivery in this film. His performance had no energy; he felt hapless and unsure of what his character was supposed to be.
The film’s storyline about AI and cloning a person had the potential to be harmless fun, which could have been like a John Woo-esque 1990s action flick. Unfortunately, the shoddy execution, poor performances, and formulaic storytelling get in the way.
Bade Miyan Chote Miyan movie links: IMDB, Letterboxd
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