The core value of Banjo is that artists can be found anywhere. Musicians are not always to the manor born, some have humble and unlikely beginnings. Street musicians in India, who play their instruments at weddings, parties and public processions are also artists. They deserve respect for their talent and hard work. The thought behind making this film is noble, but the execution is not as inventive as the choice of subject. Despite its good intentions, the film is constantly bogged down by jaded writing.

Imagine a night when writer Ravi Jadhav was watching a lot of Hindi movies with incredible plots, great performances and remarkable writing. He must have wanted to write something similar, and had all the inspiration, but didn't know how to. Banjo is the story of a failure, I'm not talking about the plot of the movie. It's a story of the writer's failure in a putting a good film together.

There's a parallel universe where Ravi Jadhav has made a movie of the same name. There he uses Banjo the instrument, which is a staple for street celebrations in Mumbai, as a metaphor for the music and culture that comes along with it. He fuses them seamlessly with the hip, urban culture that Mumbai is synonymous with and therefore addresses the issue of the lakhs living with lesser means and circles their stamp on the city, which largely goes unnoticed. Banjo the film gives them and the instrument the respect that it deserves.

Taraat Bhai (Riteish Deshmukh) is known as the 'Banjo Ka Bachchan'. He works as small time extortionist when he is not playing Banjo but of course he is the 'heart of gold' guy, whom the neighborhood loves. Chris (Nargis Fakhri) is a NY based DJ who dreams to make it big in music. When a music festival calls for entries, Chris is certain that it's now time for her to make her own music and send it for the competition.

It's the sort of superficiality where Nargis Fakhri sprints about New York City in headphones and in a Def Leppard tee to assert her identity as a music-obsessed DJ and Riteish Deshmukh sports a grungy look to realise Bollywood's definition of street. Occupying this tired space are also a bunch of oddballs called Grease, Paper and Vajya (Dharmesh Yelande, Aditya Kumar and Ram Menon) and their loony dreams, introduced to the viewer in Vijay Raaz's sprightly voice-over, lending the scenes wit and whimsy. If only Banjo was more about them if not specifically.

Avowedly dedicated to "street musicians all around the world", Banjo is a stodgy, sluggish film that makes a great deal of noise about giving true performers their due. It barely gets its noble point across. Banjo, starring Riteish Deshmukh as an extortionist, street fighter and unsung instrumentalist, lacks the storytelling smarts that might have helped it work as a mass entertainer. If anything, it is a mangled mass of a movie.

After the leak and later debacle of Great Grand Masti, Riteish Deshmukh once again returns to the silver screen, this time without Aftab Shivdasani and Vivek Oberoi giving him company. Banjo is his solo Hindi film after a long time, and it is directed by his close associate, Ravi Jadhav. Jadhav has directed acclaimed Marathi films like Bal Gandharva, Natarang and Balak Palak, the last one produced by Riteish Deshmukh himself. Nargis Fakhri plays the female lead, making this her fourth cinematic outing this year, after Azhar, Housefull 3 and that cameo in Dishoom.

Most Bollywood heroes prefer Switzerland or New Zealand or similar scenic locations for dream sequences, but Nand Kishor alias Tarrat Bhai (Riteish Deshmukh) isn't one of them. He likes to sweep the Mumbai streets with his beloved even in a beautifully planned and executed dream song. After all, this is what he has seen. Chris (Nargis Fakhri) leads a privileged New York life. She has the luxury of opting music as a career, unlike Tarrat and the members of his Banjo team, who play on the streets of Mumbai for survival.

I had hopes from Banjo because of a couple of things: director Ravi Jadhav has done a bunch of good Marathi films (Natarang is terrific; Balak Palak places an important conversation at the heart of a 'children's' film; Balgandharva has great music), and lead actor Riteish Deshmukh is light on his feet, even in the broadest comedies he almost always seems to be seen in.

Director Ravi Jadhav, who has some outstanding Marathi films to his name (like Natarang), captures the pulse of Mumbai and the city's buzzing chawl culture in Banjo with simplicity and a dash of humour. His characters exude the quintessential middle-class values, which are bound to resonate with many. The underprivileged are not conditioned to dream big, so even their wishes are realistic. One of the characters innocently asks a waiter at a posh club, if he could take some champagne home for his father.

From the time Riteish Deshmukh made his Bollywood debut in 2003 with TUJHE MERI KASAM till where he has reached today, he has shown immense versatility and growth as an actor. At the same time, the fact also remains that, he has delivered his career's biggest hits in multi- starrer films. This week's release BANJO sees Riteish Deshmukh as a solo hero, paired opposite the svelte Nargis Fakhri.

Ravi Jadhav made a name for himself in the Marathi film industry with his films like Natrang, Balgandharva, Balak Palak and Timepass and so, when we heard that he is making his Bollywood debut with Banjo, we were naturally excited, though the excitement was tinged with scepticism as Riteish Deshmukh is not considered an apt candidate for a solo lead project in Bollywood.