Babumoshai Bandookbaaz
- Director
- Kushan Nandy
- Studio
- Movies By The MobKNKSPL
- Release Date
- 24 August 2017
- Running Time
- 122 min
- Language
- Hindi
- Country
- India
- Budget
- ₹10.00 Cr
- Box Office
- ₹12.60 Cr
Review
Anurag Kashyap's *Babumoshai Bandookbaaz* is a film that refuses to apologize for its ugliness, and there's something almost honest about that refusal. Nawazuddin Siddiqui inhabits Babu Bihari with a quiet, devastating grace—a man who kills for ₹20,000 yet dreams of love with the tenderness of someone who's never been allowed softness. When he spots Phulwa, the shoemaker, we feel the collision of two worlds: his violence and her innocence. The direction captures this tension beautifully in small moments—a glance held too long, a hand almost touching. But the film's fatal flaw is that it conflates brutality with depth. As the narrative devolves into competing killers and political betrayals, we lose sight of what made Babu's longing matter. Kashyap seems more interested in the mechanics of murder than the machinery of a broken heart.
What frustrates most is the wasted potential of Phulwa's arc. After that pivotal moment where she witnesses Babu's violence and asks him to kill her tormentors, she becomes less a character and more a device—motivation dressed in a saree. Bidita Bag does what she can with underwritten material, but the screenplay betrays her. The film's attempt to balance romance with noir cynicism stumbles repeatedly; these genres need finesse to coexist, and instead we get tonal whiplash. The second half, particularly the absurd competition between Babu and Banke, feels like a different, lesser film entirely—one that mistakes spectacle for storytelling.
Rating
Storyline
So there's this guy named Babu Bihari living in Uttar Pradesh who basically works as a professional killer for hire. He's got this sweet gig where he charges ₹20,000 per job and splits a small cut with a local cop who brings him the assignments. He's known for doing clean, efficient work and living a super modest life. One day while he's scoping out a target, he spots this incredible woman named Phulwa who makes shoes for a living. He's totally smitten and tries to win her over, but she shoots him down pretty quick. Anyway, he goes ahead with his job, and wouldn't you know it—Phulwa sees the whole thing go down.
Things get pretty intense between them after that. It turns out the guy Babu killed had seriously wronged Phulwa in the worst way possible, along with his brothers. When she realizes Babu's the one who took him out, she asks him to finish the job on the remaining brothers, which he does. But here's where it gets messy—Babu didn't know that killing these guys would completely wreck some political deal his boss Jiji had going. Their relationship takes a serious hit because of it. Meanwhile, Phulwa and Babu start getting close, which complicates everything even more.
Then another hitman named Banke gets hired to take out some of Jiji's people, and Babu gets the same contract from a rival. Instead of just fighting it out, they decide to turn it into a competition to see who can knock off more targets. It becomes this whole thing where they're kind of enemies but also kind of working together, especially since Phulwa's taking care of Babu while he's nursing some injuries. The whole situation gets pretty wild as they navigate betrayal, loyalty, and trying to figure out who's really on whose side.
