Harish Shankar does a fine job in molding the central character, but a palpable sense of danger is missing

• Starcast: Ravi Teja, Bhagyashri Borse, Jagapathi Babu and others special appearance (Siddhu Jonnalagadda)
• Director and writer: Harish Shankar
• Original story: Ritesh Shah
• Based on: Hindi movie Raid (2018)
• Producer: T. G Vishwa Prasad
• Production house: People Media Factory Banner
• Music: Mickey J. Meyer
• Cinematography: Ayananka Bose
• Running time: 2 hours and 35 minutes

Harish Shankar is one of those few directors with a good track record in making successful remakes. Gabbar Singh the remake of Dabbang gave a much-needed commercial hit for Pawan Kalyan. A major reason for Gabbar Singh success was how he integrated the trademark Pawan Kalyan quirks and eccentrics. Similarly, Jigarthanda was remade as Gaddalakonda Ganesh. For Varun Tej Gaddalakonda Ganesh was a breakthrough movie. On the other hand, Harish Shankar hasn’t found much success while directing original stories. After a hiatus the director is back with the Hindi remake of Raid Mr. Bachchan. Raid was an intense thriller taken from a real-life income tax raid. It was the longest ever raid to have happened. Director Raj Kumar Gupta made sure that the proceedings were taunt with no unnecessary commercial elements. Sure, the film had a few romantic numbers and also some romance between Ileana D’Cruz and Ajay Devgan but that didn’t hamper the film’s flow. Mr. Bachchan on the other hand is more commercial in sync with Ravi Teja’s mass image. This remake has ample doses of action sequences, mass numbers where Ravi Teja shakes a leg with a much younger heroine etc.

Mr Bachchan begins off with establishing the honesty of Indukuri Anand who is also called as Mr. Bachchan. He has done many raids earning a good reputation. However, a particular raid leads to his suspension. Indukuri Anand comes back to his hometown. There is a specific reason behind Indukuri also being called Bachchan. The father played by Tanikella Bharani is a huge fan of Shahenshah Amitabh Bachchan, it goes without saying that Ravi Teja too is a big fan of Amitabh Bachchan in real life. Coming back, the father decides to keep the name of Bachchan as a nickname for his son. There is an entire sequence where Ravi Teja enacts scenes from Deewar and Shahenshah among others. In his hometown Bachchan falls in love with Jikki (Bhagyashri Borse). While the love story is going on Mr. Bachchan path crosses with that of a powerful politician Mutyam Jaggaya (Jagapati Babu). Later on, Anand’s suspension is revoked, as part of duty Indukuri lands in Mutyam Jaggaya’s house to unearth all the black money and gold. How his personal and professional life gets entwined with Mutyam Jaggaya is the core of Mr. Bachchan.

Not surprisingly the soul of Mr. Bachchan is Ravi Teja’s energetic performance. He does well as a determined IT officer and is also charming in the romantic scenes. The confrontation scenes with Jagapathi Babu have some nice punches particularly the dialogues about honesty and how he will shower the power of an honest Income tax officer.

The romance between Ravi Teja and Bhagyashri Bose is developed through old songs and her visits to the place of cassette recording. These portions have a certain oldworld charm. Bhagyashri Borse lends the necessary glam quotient and is also fairly effective in the intense scenes.

Jagapathi Babu seems to have stepped straight out of Aravinda Samatha sets. The senior actor doesn’t match up to Saurabh Shukla’s towering act, nevertheless Jagapati Babu does make for a formidable adversary and does a fine job in showcasing Mutyam Jaggaya’s frustration. However, in terms of characterization Saurabh Shukla’s Tauji was more layered. The actor coupled with the writing brought a certain humanity. There are scenes in Raid where there is a palpable anguish in Tauji’s eyes about his own family’s incompetence. This is absolutely missing in the remake.

Another problem with Mr Bachchan is the characterizations of the team members. Amit Sial in Raid had a very important role. He goes from being Tauji’s mole to developing a conscious. Here they have been written in extreme broad strokes. Coming to Siddhu Jonnalagadda’s cameo the young actor impresses with his charismatic style and trademark dialogue delivery.

Micky. J Myers music is suitably massy with some energetic dancing from Ravi Teja and Bhagyashri Borse. Ayananka Bose’s cinematography is lavish,

Mr. Bachchan is best watched without comparisons to Raid. For hard core Ravi Teja fans there is enough to enjoy.