Film critic-turned-filmmaker Karan Anshuman shows flashes of wit and potential in his occasionally clever nods to classic films. But saddled with a script that’s neither funny nor biting enough, he delivers a film that barely takes off.

The film finds its laughs in the odd moment, but comes off, over all, flat and tepid.

Stay away from this one and don’t even think of spending a penny of your hard earned money on Bangistan. Instead, go to Pakistan or Afghanistan!!!

Bangistan races through with a nice tempo, only to be brought to an abrupt halt with its highly predictable, and ‘heroic’ (read Bollywood-ised) climax. Still, it’s left with a lot of watchable and well thought-out moments. Bangistan deserves applause for its message-oriented content.

Bangistan stands on ground zero. In T.S. Eliot’s famous words, the film begins and ends ‘not with a bang, but with a whimper’.

Bangistan is eventually reduced to being a satire on the notion of a satire, falling tremendously short of a bang for your buck.

It careens out of control before you can say bang and hurtles scratchily down a path that hits a dead-end all too quickly. Stay out of the way.

If you really desire to visit Krakow, pack your bags and spare yourself a Bangistan detour.

Despite the dry choice of subject, Bangistan makes valiant attempts to keep the humour alive during its two-hour running time.

The characters of Riteish and Pulkit, who do not have a single mean bone in their bodies, are convincing as the Dumb and Dumber combo; blundering bumpkins who are a misfit on a terror journey.

“Bangistan” is a truly misguided attempt at satirizing religion. It neither engages, nor entertains.

For a comedy film, ‘Bangistan’ has very little humour. You go into see a light, funny film but you soon realise this one is too preachy and predictable to achieve that.

Good intent doesn’t translate into a good movie. As Pravin and Hafeez engage in religious discourse, they get a better understanding of their own religion. But these scenes are so contrived that they irk more than enlighten. By the time the wannabe terrorists have a change of heart and head and turn peace activists, the audience is exasperated with the events.

I would advise not really spending on this ticket over the weekend, but if you have to, best to step inside the theatre in some sort of intoxication. Else, watch it at your own risk.

BANGISTAN is a pointless film that fails to make you laugh or entertain. Skip it.

Like many countless other films, Bangistan also has a promising plot somewhere in there but it never realizes it potential. It has a tough time finding its footing as it oscillates between comedy and some serious sermonizing and the two have to be handled with great care like a chef mixing ingredients to make a dish.

I’m trying to figure out things in my mind, to make sense of what I have just seen…

Bangistan looks like it must’ve started as a good enough idea on paper before it got compromised for reasons best known to its makers. There are glimpses of a superior product in the way some shots and sequences are executed, but the overall product is an insult to their own efforts. Wes Anderson and Anees Bazmee is not a combination to aspire to. Ever.

The film could have gone a notch or two higher, if Pulkit Samrat had gone slow on his histrionics and perhaps a tad more steady handed execution by the debut director. The script and screenplay deserved a better film.

Go , laugh a while at the engaging antics of our two suicide bomber heroes. They are a riot. No pun intended.

Of all the Bollywood films that have explored fanaticism, Bangistan the one most lacking in courage and insight. Unless someone from behind the scenes speaks up, we’ll never know why it’s such a confused mess. However, it’s clear that an irreverent comedy was mangled and manipulated to become an earnest lecture on harmony — not because the story demanded it, but because someone didn’t have the guts to crack jokes and poke fun at fanatics. And so, a decent premise was blown up. That is the real tragedy of Bangistan.

Bangistan’s ultimate undoing lies in its desperate lunge towards delivering a message in the climax. Here, Anshuman is at his most clueless, pausing the story to allow preachy banalities to take centre stage. It’s this bit that is really irksome but fittingly encapsulates Bangistan: the film refuses to take chances, to buck the rules, to soar beyond the cushy confines of unending mediocrity.

Karan Anshuman had impressed many with his critiquing skills but the same cannot be said about his directorial or scripting ones. The script gets decrepit in the middle section. And the climactic one delivered in sermonizing fashion just doesn’t cut any ice. The blundering terrorists angle was a great ploy but to have them intentionally turn in the slog overs, appeared too far-fetched. Also the subplot that involves a goat that Pravin is forced to adopt, doesn’t go anywhere near fruitful.

However, as one doesn’t probably expect from a film critic-turned-director (assuming it would be a priority in this case to make a good film minus the obvious flaws he points out every friday), this one is two hours of puerile ‘torture.’

Karan and his team fail to create a screenplay that engages. They did have a grand idea. Karan fails to transform that into a convicting film. And oh the climax… so avoidable! Tragedy!

Watchable in parts, the political satire successfully drives home the humanitarian message.

No two ways about it. Bangistan is a huge disappointment, especially since it came from the stable of Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. As for the director, we recommend you to watch the 2010 British film Four Lions, to understand how to make a farce film on terrorism that entertains as well!

A mess of good intentions and bad jokes…

Bangistan attempts to tell a well-intentioned message through humour, and in the end, both are lost on the viewer. The film, based on our novice bombers, is sadly low-impact!

Bangistan made me realise the connection between satire and preachiness. Almost all satire has a “holier-than-thou” air about it that the parent-humor sarcasm carries. It is in a way talking down to its target audience. Except, that audience isn’t even listening or will see through both the sarcasm and the lesson.

…ultimately it is not about performances, it is the uneven writing and ham-fisted treatment that lets this potent idea down.

A fine fine concept has been butchered in one swift stroke. Bangistan tries hard to give you those much-anticipated giggles. It ends up making a lot of noise but audiences don’t walk into the theatre to hear a bang. ‘Sound’ direction and less hamming could have saved this venture from turning into a cinematic disaster.

Karan Anshuman biggest failing lies in the climax when Bangistan deliberately turns preachy.

The movie in itself was a message, you don’t have to give sermons to educate the audience.

Bangistan is not a great film and surely can be missed during this weekend but if you are a Riteish Deshmukh fan, then you can manage to sit for 2 hours in the theater and bare this bad film with a great performance by Riteish.

The biggest pitfall of the movie is Riteish’s character who feels so strongly about Muslims being stereotyped by the society that he turns into a suicide bomber. It is extremely bizarre. This film is a plain victim of bad direction and avoids everything (read Riteish) that could’ve saved him. This film is a victim of shabby direction. If Karan needs a lesson in films of this genre he must grab a copy of Four Lions which was pertinent and entertaining. Bangistan is low on bangs, fun and everything it promised it will entail.

There was surely a good idea in Bangistan at some point but sadly Karan Anshuman’s directorial debut takes no risks. With over-designed sound, juvenile lyrics, obvious in-film references to other films and filmmakers and a weak lead actor in Samrat, the result is a film devoid of subtlety, layers and wit.

…while it’s a fact that there is nothing very special about the film, we give it 2 stars only for Riteish Deshmukh’s versatile acting and the appropriate editing by Shweta Venkat. Watch it only if you haven’t yet seen a film with a social message or if you have nothing better to do this weekend.