Strictly for Babbu Mann fans

Jasmine Singh

Well, Babbu Mann fans will agree that the actor-singer is a one man army, he can play as many characters as there are in the film, (he can even direct, write, give music as well), and in Banjara- The Truck Driver he does just that. 

  If you don’t find a storyline, any hard-hitting effective dialogues, you will at least find the truck, in the old and the new versions. Director Mushtaq Pasha centres the story around two main characters, one is Babbu Mann and second of course, is the truck, and everything else is immaterial. And of course, he justifies the hook line of the film Banjara- The Truck Driver, as you will find the protagonist driving a truck in the entire film. 

And if you thought, the film is all about the journey of a truck driver, a traveller, well, you are absolutely right, only you wouldn’t see any of that. All you see, (we repeat for the umpteenth time) is Babbu Mann and something his fans are totally excited about. Who wants a story, screenplay or dialogues when you have Babbu Mann?

The film drags itself at more than one place, like for instance the Partition phase that could be trimmed for better results. It is in this phase that Babbu Mann talks in a pre-partition language, which sounds amusing and very forced (but not for the Babbu Mann fans). The story shifts from here to present day Vancouver where you are numbed by Babbu Mann’s dead pan expression (he lets his eyes do all the talking and acting), Shraddha Arya’s over acting, Rana Ranbir’s completely put on and fake Canadian Punjabi accent, and the omnipresent truck. The music of the film is by Babbu Mann, and it is strictly meant for Babbu Mann fans.

You would also see in between the truck and the hero, actress Gurpreet Bhangu in a blink and miss role along with Jia Mustafa, who served as the co-passenger of this Banjara. In the end, if you have set out to find anything other than the truck and Babbu Mann in the film, then you will be completely disheartened but if this is all you wanted to see, you’ve hit the right road!

jasmine@tribunemail.com