Director: Priyadarshan
Producer: Dhaval Jatania, Suniel Shetty
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Govinda, Lara Dutta, Tanushree Datta, Jackie Shroff, Shakti Kapoor, Rajpal Yadav, Manoj Bajpai, Sanjay Dutt, Paresh Rawal, Sunil Shetty, Arbaaz Khan
Music Dir: Pritam Chakraborty

The year 2006 is coming to an end and what a way to end the year of comedy. Hindi Cinema has its comedy king Govind back. The year that has witnessed films like 'Khosla Ka Ghosla', 'Pyar Ke Side Effects', 'Phir Hera Pheri', 'Malamaal Weekly' and 'Lage Raho Munna Bhai' bringing back the long lost smile on the face of the movie goer.

There were other attempts as well like 'Apna Sapna Money Money', 'Tom Dick & Harry', 'Pyare Mohan', 'Golmaal', 'Shaadi Se Pehle' and 'Ladies Tailor' etc that too tried for but not so successfully.

This doesn't mean that its director Priyadarshan hadn't tasted failure; he had in 'Chup Chup Ke' though he was a success in 'Malamaal Weekly', and now the score may turn in his favor with his latest offing 'Bhagam Bhag'. Priyadarshan who has mastery in setting his stories in countryside or middle class background has slowly started shifting his ambience to up market situations and even overseas.

Priyadarshan moves to London with 'Bhagam Bhag'. London is slowly becoming a favorite location for Hindi filmmakers; buzz is that producers get a huge amount of money as subsidy in shooting London.

Anyway back to our film, it was good to see people making long queues in front of cinema halls to get tickets and not only in single screen theatres Tickets were sold in black market as well. People are so eager to see how the Hero No. 1 Govinda has performed with Priyadarshan and how does his chemistry work with Priyan's favorite Akshay Kumar.

In fact, Suniel Shetty was supposed to do this role in 'Bhagam Bhag' who is also one of the producers of this film. It was Suniel who brought in Govinda in this film. Govinda makes his comeback just a day after his 43rd birthday.

Being a comedy there is not much to watch as storyline. The setting is like Champak Seth (Paresh Rawal) running a theatre company and Bunty (Akshay Kumar) & Babla (Govinda) working as actors with him.

Both of them are very naughty and tease company's heroine (Tanushri Dutta) so much so that she leaves the company just before it is to leave for London to do many shows. In London, Champak finds a solution to the problem by pitching both of them to look for a girl. He sets the situation that whoever brings in a girl will play hero to her.

Bunty finds a girl Nisha (Lara Dutta) in a tricky situation and manages her to act in the play. But soon she also parts with the team and her departure brings in many problems for the whole group. It is revealed that Nisha is not the girl that they were looking for. She was wife of a rich man but had lost her memory.

Now, she gets her memory back so she must return to her family. But this is just the tip of the iceberg. Nisha carries a trail of mysterious incidents behind her and the onus for all this falls on Bunty, Babla and Champak. Police consider them culprit and therefore they have to prove that they are innocent. But, they must come clean.

Priyadarshan, working on his own script though helped by his erstwhile colleague Neeraj Vohra, takes off very smoothly and soon the film becomes a joyride for everyone.

In fact, the first half of the film is in itself a complete film and even if you come out after the interval, you have your value for the money. Priyadarshan has again united a very good team technically. Jeeva's cinematography is ultimate and his scene taking is very apt for the mood of the film.

Be it opening sequence song or the last song that cost its producers nearly ten million rupees, his camera angles are just perfect. Jeeva also brings out the required effect in all the chase sequences.

Pritam, who is riding high following the success of 'Woh Lamhe' and 'Dhoom 2', ends the year with the hit songs of 'Bhagam Bhag'. The songs have some very innovative steps, as Hindi cinema witnesses two lesser known choreographers in its belt. Both Rashmi Verma and Prasanna have worked very well.

Among actors, the film shares fame with Paresh Rawal, Akshay and Govinda. As Priyadarshan has already announced that he is taking a break with Paresh for some time, people were anxious to see their last film together.

Paresh has started looking repetitive but even in this he works very hard and tries to bring in humor even while crying. Akshay too hasn't anything fresh, but manages to show because of good script and along with Govinda.

Govinda's comeback deserves kudos, as despite being away from camera for almost five years, he acts perfect. He may have been treated as second hero, but it is because of him that the film has got bumper opening in most of the areas. Lara Dutta, Jackie Shroff, Arbaaz Khan, Shakti Kapoor and Rajpal Yadav lend ample support. Mohan Joshi and Sharat Saxena are losing their mastery over acting and should immediately take corrective measures.

Tanushri Dutta's appearance in one song and two scenes sizzles on the screen. 'Bhagam Bhag' has a crime angle thrown in it on the lines of 'Hera Pheri', but the mystery is not solved here as perfectly.

The climax is very disheartening and its last half an hour takes the shine away. On the whole, 'Bhagam Bhag' will manage to fare well at the box office with the record number of shows (306 shows a day in Delhi and NCR alone). It is better than 'Chup Chup Ke' and 'Malamaal Weekly', but falls below to 'Hera Pheri'.