Badmaash Company

Plot

In 1994 middle-class Bombay, three ordinary youngsters, Karan (Shahid Kapoor), Zing (Meiyang Chang) and Chandu (Vir Das) graduate from college and go for a trip to Bangkok, Thailand, where they meet Bulbul (Anushka Sharma) and they start a business together. Karan eventually falls in love with her. Karan tells her that he always wanted to start his own business but his father Anupam Kher wants him to study MBA. On the other hand, Bulbul confesses that she wants to be a super model and advises Karan that he does not need a large amount of money to start a business, but a big "idea". Back in India, Karan's father has a heart attack. Karan's mother pawns her jewelery in order to arrange some amount of money for better facilities and an AC room at hospital as his insurance could only afford a Non-AC room. This leaves Karan heart-broken, and he immediately decides to get rich by any means, he decides to start his own venture along with his friends. He comes up with an idea for smuggling branded Reebok shoes in India without any custom charges. For this, they have to separate the consignment into two halves, one with only left shoes in Calcutta and other with only right shoes in Madras. At both places, the buyer will refuse to receive the consignment, hence the entire consignment will be confiscated. The confiscated consignment will then be auctioned in which Chandu (in Calcutta) and Karan (in Madras) will buy the entire consignment, pretending they are scrap dealers. Once the right shoe pairs up with left shoe, the zero valued product comes into full value which can be sold at any profit without any custom charges. They name their venture "Friends and Company" and proceed to make a large fortune with it. When Karan is caught by his father putting away the black money, he explains the situation, including the fact that he is doing business with a smuggler. As a result, he is forced to leave the house and starts living with Bulbul and uses her to get contracts. After the government in India decides to reduce the import duty on foreign goods (including shoes), the friends decide to go to America. They get help from Karan's Uncle Jazz (Pavan Malhotra.) They do the same business in USA as they did in India, only this time they import Leather Gloves. In short time, the group becomes excessively rich and starts to live royally. The police starts to suspect Karan and his team, owing to which they change their business. Instead, one of the friends rents a lavish house for one hundred thousand dollars by taking a loan from a bank. Then the house will be sold to another friend and again that friend will take loan from the same bank, hence repeating the cycle. Since the property of the person who cannot return the loan is used to be seized by the bank, one of them will declare thyself as bankrupt and the house gets seized, with an actual worth of one hundred thousand dollars, but the company has already gained two hundred thousand dollars profit. However, Karan becomes too greedy and the group begins to fall apart. Karan and Zing get into an argument about Zing's excessive drinking. Zing leaves and opens his own bar. Bulbul leaves when she finds out that Karan has married another woman for a green card. Chandu gets married and quits the company to start a video store. Alone and heartbroken, Karan visits India and secretly attends a function where his father is being honored for his years of service to his company. Upon seeing this, he realizes his mistake. On his return to America, he is arrested and put in jail for 6 months. He is bailed out after Bulbul comes and gives up Zing's, Chandu's and her share from what they earned in the company. Karan starts working with his uncle. One day, he meets Bulbul, who is revealed to be pregnant with his child and the lovers reconcile. At Uncle Jazz's office, Karan finds out that his uncle's entire consignment of imported shirts from Madras has been rejected as the color bleeds after washing. The news reaches to stock market due to which Jazz company's share fall down to 30% . Karan sees an opportunity and thinks of another brilliant idea and Karan patches up with Zing, Chandu and his family to start another new venture. This time, he makes Jazz's buyers believe that his company offers a new kind of shirt in market, which changes its color every time it is washed, hence a common man gets a new shirt every time he washes it. The buyers orders a trial order of 5000 pieces and the public goes crazy over this new shirt, due to which Karan gets another order, this time for much bigger amount of shirts. The shares of Jazz's company sky rocketed as the public really appreciates and buys the shirts at an overwhelming high rate, hence recovering his Uncle Jazz' loss. Karan, Zing, Chandu and Bulbul are now partners with Jazz in "Friends and Company", but is turned into a public limited company. With his wife, son, friends and having made his father proud, Karan is finally content with his life.

Cast

Production

Parmeet Sethi wrote the script for the film with dialogues in only six days. The four main characters are all based on real-life people. Parmeet reveals that he got tired of television and was keen on pursuing film direction. Filming locations for the film included New York, Atlantic City, Philadelphia, Bangkok, Mumbai, and Hyderabad.

Critical reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave it a rating of 3 out of 5, saying; "On the whole, the movie is a watchable experience for various reasons, the prime reason being it offers solid entertainment, but doesn't insult your intelligence." Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the movie 1.5 out of 5 and claimed it to be outrageously silly. Gaurav Malani of Indiatimes gave the film 3.5 out of 5 saying "Badmaash Company is a good entertainer. Worth a watch!" and praising Shahid Kapoor. Komal Nahta gave the film 2.5 out of 5 praising the performance of Shahid Kapoor and calling Badmaash Company an entertainer. Sukanya Verma of rediff gave the film 2 out of 5 stars saying Sethi's directorial debut starts out with cocksure confidence and zing.

Nikhat Kazmi of the Times of India gave the film 3 out of 5 stars and said, "Indeed, Badmaash Company does have a bunch of riveting scenes, although the story does follow a very predictable line of crime and punishment/repentance." Daily News and Analysis (DNA) gave the film 2.5 out of 5 saying, "This company is worth keeping." Anupama Chopra of NDTV called it a "staggeringly tedious film" while Raja Sen of Rediff said, "There's not a single scene in the film that actually works". Mayank Shekhar of the Hindustan Times criticized the film as half-written; he only liked the film until the interval and gave it 2 out of 5. The film received an aggragate rating of 4/10 at ReviewGang.

Box office

The film had a decent opening on its first weekend despite competition from Housefull. The film made a drop in overseas collections, but it have much effect on its domestic collections. By the end of its first week, the film grossed Rs. 7.5 million. The film collected Rs. 350.30 million at the end of its theatrical run and became a commercial success at the box office.

Awards and nominations

Nominated

Winner:

Soundtrack

The songs featured in the film are composed by Pritam with the lyrics penned by Anvita Dutt Guptan, while the film score was composed by Julius Packiam.