Baazaar

Shakun Kothari (Saif Ali Khan) is 'the' business tycoon and every stock trader's wet dream. Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra), an aspiring moneymaker but lives with a conservative Farhan Qureshi's kinda dad in Allahabad - sorry Mr. Adityanath, Prayagraj. Rizwan, along with his street-smart attitude & sky-high dreams reach Mumbai in order to make a name for himself.

Like many young Indians Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra), from Allahabad recently renamed as Prayaag Raj, wants to move to Bombay, which goes as Mumbai, not "to struggle but to settle" he tells us. He doesn't want to make it in movies but crack the stock market and impress one of its most successful players Shakun Kothari (Saif Ali Khan), a greedy and powerful Gujarati trader.

Earlier this year, when the sequel to Race 3 released, we learnt an invaluable lesson. That someone's business is their business, none of our business. Imparting this bit of advice, Daisy Shah looked like she meant business. And as we catch a press show of Saif Ali Khan, Rohan Mehra, Radhika Apte and Chitrangada Singh-starrer Baazaar, we wish she could watch it with us, for in this film their business is certainly our business.

Debutant director Gauravv K Chawla gives this film the feel of a thriller from the start. The opening frame of a young man standing perilously on the ledge of a high-rise in Mumbai and looking down at what could be a 'dangerous' end, makes you uncomfortable.

When a debutant actor is asked to break the fourth wall in the second scene, you know the first-time director is confident. You also expect the film to be edgy and stylish. What you don't want it to be is the rehash of a million done-to-death tropes. Baazaar, a very Bollywoodi-sed version of Wall Street's Gordon Gekko, shows promise, pushes you into the semi-dark world of Mumbai's stockbrokers, makes you admire the fast-paced narrative but still leaves you with one predominant thought-how it could have been a much better film.

In a brief job interview in the conference room of a leading Mumbai stockbroking firm, Baazaar's hero Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra) is challenged by a smart alec MBA to sell a cup of coffee in that room. "Sell it and the job is yours," he says. To underline his desire to belittle Rizwan, the fellow spits into a mug before handing it to him. Rizwan is from a small town, but he is no shrinking puppy. He coolly drinks the spit, puts down a hundred bucks on the table and says, "Sold, Sir. To myself."

When I think about Saif Ali Khan's early movies, I imagine a clueless kid using all his charms and still getting bullied. Somewhere his insecure, self-deprecating manner became part of his clumsy, cool appeal. It worked fabulously around urban rom-coms until he reached a stage of experiments.

Gauravv K Chawla's saga of the wolf of Dalal Street wants to be that zeitgeist film that holds a mirror to the times (accordingly, shiny surfaces abound). Baazaar is on point about the cult of greed that is one of Mumbai's contributions to the Indian imagination. And yet, the Wall Street knockoff is a decade off.

Saif Ali Khan plays Shakun Kothari, a top Mumbai player, the king of the stock market, who risks big, and wins bigger. Till one day, he doesn't. Newbie Rizwan Ahmad (Mehra), small town boy from Allahabad understands hunger and drive and is willing to cross a line. Till one day, he isn't.

Rizwan Ahmed (Rohan Mehra) leaves Allahabad behind and with it, the small-town mentality, too. He moves to Mumbai, a city with soaring skyscrapers and dreams that fly even higher. His one wish is to work with his idol Shakun Kothari (Saif Ali Khan), but the greedy and manipulative world of money, power and the stock market draws Rizwan in, a little too fast.

We might as well blame it on Martin Scorsese. Baazaar, directed by Gauravv K Chawla, is the kind of insipid film that will require someone to take responsibility, and we may call this the fault of the master who made The Wolf Of Wall Street. It's not that this film copies that alarmingly dynamic one, but rather that this director is so obviously seduced by visions of great films about the stock market, that he rushes - eagerly and without preparation - onto the filmmaking floor to try and join the legends.

A stock market thriller, Baazaar, directed by first-timer Gauravv K. Chawla, spins mainly around on stock devices. A small-town lad heads to Mumbai with the intention of working with his role model, a corporate czar with a rags-to-riches story that begins at the age of ten with smuggling diamonds on crowded Surat to Mumbai express trains.