Some more mayhem and mahamari in the land of bakchodi (useless gossip) and maara-mari. The bizarre small-town formula started on the big screen with Anand Rai’s Tanu Weds Manu and then went in Bareilly Ki Barfi. That formula has now stagnated into a bomb ka gola exploding erratically in and around the backwater of Uttar Pradesh. Ganga maiyya ki jai ho! This one looks like a less self-important variation on Mirzapur. Indeed, the USP of Bicchoo Ka Khel is that it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Otherwise, it’s the same bucolic characters speaking in the same drawl with multiple abusive words thrown in for crude measure. Even the lead is the same. And the only way I can tell Divyendu apart in this serial from Mirzapur is through his name.
Munna Bhaiyya is now Akhil Bhaiyya and he loves his Baapu like a pal. They behave like typical teenagers who have just discovered a life out of their bubble. I liked the cheesy camaraderie between Divyendu Sharma and his screen dad Mukul Chadda. While Daddy has his little fun on the side, beta stands guard outside… if you think that’s cringy, then well you are in the wrong place. The mofussil mayhem and the tawdry titillation of the cow belt is by now a streaming reality. Deal with it.
Sadly, the father-son locker-room bonding ends all too soon and Divyendu’s Akhil Bhaiyya goes on a revenge rampage that involves seedy politicians, sexually active women and corrupt cops, all of whom share a common affinity to foul language and high-octane pulp drama. It’s sad to see this series enthusiastically recreating the Mirzapur flavour when it could have been a lot more than just a cut-and-paste job. Nonetheless, Divyendu is an actor who refuses to be daunted by repetition. He works towards making Akhil Bhaiyya far more amusing and far less intimidating than Munna Bhaiyya. But seriously, it’s time for an image-change for Divyendu and the series on desi spaghetti westerns with the body count being matched by the bawdy backchat. Bullets and Bakchodi, bahot ho gayi.
