Badass Ravikumar
Hindi - (Genre - really??)
146 mins
JioHotstar
Prologue
Himesh Reshammiya is not just a musician. He is a LEGEND. A cultural phase. A mood.
For a large part of the 2000s, one simply could not escape him. His chartbusters practically carried the early career of Emraan Hashmi on their shoulders. He sang in a tone that defied both logic and medical explanation, and yet it was immensely popular. His music videos even launched Deepika Padukone. For a while, he was inevitable.
And then came that moment. The fork in the road every successful person eventually faces — humility or hubris.
Himesh chose… cinema.
Stardom. Six-pack, hair transformation, slow-motion entries, dhamakedar dialogues, the full package. On sheer musical momentum and fan loyalty, even his debut as a lead worked. That should have been the end of it. But no.
Producers lined up. For what joy, but even Subhash Ghai decided to revisit Karz (and added more zzzz). Over time, the caps, the voice, the persona — everything became a meme. And this is where Himesh Reshammiya did something unexpectedly brilliant.
He stopped resisting. He became the joke. His “Cap Tours.” concerts - Self-parody. His movies had dialogues that sound like they were written by Twitter trolls at 3 AM. He did not fight the noise — he monetised it.
Badass Ravikumar is the final form of that evolution (hopefully)
The Review
He is Ravikumar (RK). An Indian cop(?) - The film itself is not entirely sure. He gets suspended often, for his hairstyle. He struts around like 2000s ka Feroz Khan.
He does not smoke, but permanently holds a cigarette on his lip, that is how he feels close to his long lost brother.
His mission: stop Carlos Pedro Panther (Prabhu Deva), a “Criminal Power Player” (dare you say broker, you will be shot) from acquiring a micro film to sell to a "smoke from his nose and head and ear" general from across the border.
RK walks around like a man who discovered slow motion and never let go. The hair takes it own life every other scene, sunglasses that deserve their own line, and a quadruple barrel weapon that looks like it escaped from the set of the time travel classic “Looper”
Carlos, meanwhile, exists in a permanent state of choreographed villainy. Monochrome suits, hat, dancing through dialogues, smiling like he knows something the rest of us do not. It is excellent casting, because dialogue is minimal.
Badass Ravikumar is not a film. This is a collection of ideas that refused to be edited.
There is no screenplay. Scenes appear, collide and vanish. Characters come and go as they please. Timelines, locations are treated as a suggestion. Logic is optional (even HR says that in the prologue)
At one point, a character is taken on a romantic bike ride, which ends with her being casually dropped off a cliff. Not metaphorically. Literally.
Some Absolute Nuclear Dialogues, which made me pause to note down.
- “Do not fear fear, because fear fears him.”
- “Jin toofanon mein tum jaise logon ki jade (roots) hil jaate hain, un toofanon mein hum kapde sukhate hain.”
- “Ghee ke saath honey aur Ravi Kumar se dushmani sehat ke liye haanikarak hoti hai.”
- “Jo Ravi Kumar se ulajhta hai, uske photo se haar(garland) latakta hai.”
- “Khoon bahana meri fitrat mein hai — Tere shareer mein itna khoon nahin hai jitna Ravi Kumar mooth ta hai.”
- “Carlos se cheating, maut se meeting.”
These are philosophical declarations from another dimension.
This is an HR movie, there are of course songs (nearly 15 of them). Mini music videos that occasionally remember there is a film happening around them. There are at least 2 or three sequences where songs just play one after the other, just boggling your mind.
At the end, when everyone has assembled at the villains lair, the microfilm needs 30 minutes for verification. The logical response?
Everyone, hero, villain, moll, sidekicks, grandmothers, mothers, two random detectives, goes to a desert and starts singing “Dil ke Taj Mahal mein.”
Cinema.
Epilogue
Badass Ravikumar is Himesh Reshammiya trolling:
* his critics
* his memes
* his own legacy
* and occasionally, the audience
You do not watch this film. You surrender to it. You switch your brain off, hold on, and let the absurdity wash over you like you were drowning in a lazy river.
Somewhere between the laughter, the confusion, and the what the f***kaboutery… you might actually have fun.
I did. I giggled with tears watching this in the darkness with my headphones on. My wife occasionally looked around to see if I was choking to death.
Oh, btw - I had the best sleep score in the week, after. So perhaps this is what you really need!
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