|
Bunty
and Babli are two avid dreamers. Two free souls born into caged
small town realities. They grow weary of being two specks on the
horizon. They desire the horizon itself. And so they pack their
aspirations in worn out bags, whip a scarf of confidence around
their proud necks and set forth. On a journey across the length
and breadth of the country, spinning circles around the people
they meet.
Born
"Rakesh" in a lethargic, lead-eyed Fursatganj, he is
a man of schemes, ideas, invention and restlessness. His small
Uttar Pradesh town begins to feel a bit too small for his king
size plans.
He
wants to be amongst the richest in the world. He wants to be in
Jacuzzis. He wants to be in limousines. He wants to be a big blip
on the radar of history. He wants to be big black typo in newspaper
headlines.
In
short, he wants out of here.
In
a parallel universe, in another slump-backed, crinkle nosed small
town called Pankinagar, "Vimmi", our heroine, faces
the same dilemma. Does she follow the course every other young
marriageable girl does? Or does she carve new fatelines on her
soft as butter palms?
In
her mind (but in her mind alone!) she's the foxiest thing to ever
have hit a ramp. She's the hottie the world can just gape at but
never touch. She is Miss India.
So
she too decides to fly the coop.
Somewhere
along their individual journeys, Rakesh and Vimmi meet, flogged
by circumstance but unwilling to concede,
In
a moment of mistaken truth, "Bunty" and "Babli"
are born. And the world gets turned on its head!
We
follow the duo through caper after caper, in which they meet rajahs,
powerbrokers, shaadi bandwallahs, millionaires, investors, leaders,
ministers, banjaras, elephants, explorers, hoteliers, chai boys
and one very, very upset policeman!
The
world sits up and takes wide eyed notice of this pair.
Bunty
is the Rakesh that Rakesh always dreamt of being, with a delicious
twist.
Babli
is the Vimmi that Vimmi never thought she'd become, with another
delicious twist.
Together
they are more than the sum of their parts.
Together
they are spiritual gurus, bureaucrat and secretary, gangster and
moll, business partners, hen pecked husband and pregnant wife,
lawyer and sexually harassed client, vagabonds, caught-in-a-downpour
lovers and lots, lots more. And they seem to be loving every minute
of it.
Their
escapades play out against backdrops as varied as the Taj Mahal,
the banks of the Ganges, the saffrons of Benaras, the browns of
Kanpur and Lucknow, the whites of Mussoorie, the tinkling bells
of Rishikesh and Hardwar, the skies of Delhi and all across the
vein like network of the Great Indian railways and highways.
Every
mundane reality in every dusty corner of India is flushed out
of its slumber by a splash of "Bunty aur Babli" excitement
in this, the tale of two dreamers that blaze the sky like comets.
But do not die. Like all good comets they promise to reappear
again. And they do. And how they do all of that is, seriously,
the stuff legends are made of.
|