‘Badass Ravi Kumar’ movie review: Himesh Reshammiya fights, sings and romances his way through an over-the-top masala film

‘Badass Ravi Kumar’ movie review: Himesh Reshammiya fights, sings and romances his way through an over-the-top masala film

Badass Ravi Kumar begins with an earnest appeal, where a voiceover urges people to put on their 80s masala goggles, and that it is all about ‘entertainment, entertainment, and entertainment’. There is also the all-important addendum; logic is optional. 

Now, going into a film like Badass Ravi Kumar, it is safe to say that our expectations are more than set. This is, after all, a spin-off of The Xposé, Himesh Reshammiya’s 2014 thriller film. In Badass Ravi Kumar however, this warning feels necessary, given just how the film introduces its leading man. 

Ravi Kumar is an honest, upright cop who only follows his own rules, punches, tackles and showers bullets, all while mouthing punchlines and questionable poetry in breathless succession. If you are wondering how he isn’t wearing a uniform or just seems to be killing people by the dozen, we are helpfully told he has been suspended a couple of times…for having long hair. “I hate negativity and you are all very negative,” he declares, before slicing someone with a chainsaw. In an introduction that seems to go on for long, he also pushes a national traitor off a helicopter, all while the pilot helpfully says it is time to go back since the ‘package’ has been dropped. 

Ravi Kumar is part of a world that tries to be as over-the-top as him, but the others just about manage to match up. Carlos Pedro Panther (Prabhu Deva), an all-powerful mobster who walks around with a tarot card reader is tasked with retrieving a reel that has sensitive information belonging to India. The reel is possessed by Laila (Kirti Kulhari), a contract killer whose sister Madhubala (Simona J) is someone Ravi Kumar has been in love with for a while now. Ravi Kumar is soon enlisted to ensure the reel doesn’t fall into wrong hands, and makes his way to Muscat where most of the action unfolds. 

Inspirations are aplenty in the film; there’s Pathaan, Animal, and even Dhoom 2, with Badass Ravi Kumar putting its own spin on the diamond heist and Hrithik’s camouflage. In a regular film, a punchline is reserved for the highs, but here, every other conversation happens just using punchlines. Case in point: when Ravi Kumar finally makes a heartfelt declaration of his love to Madhubala in the middle of being accosted by a dozen gunmen, she insists he says it again, in ‘his style’. Admittedly, the cheesy dialogues are the best part of the film since Ravi Kumar has something creative to say in every situation — whether it is to talk about his love for the country, his failed romance, or what he intends to do with betrayers. 

The film however feels like a hodgepodge of one overlong sequence after another. There is a long sequence in the second half, where Ravi and undercover agent Nisha (Sunny Leone) take the stage for multiple songs in succession (including ‘Tandoori Days’) and you begin to wonder what this is all leading to. In a film that is as unabashedly masala as this one, it would have been great to see more of Ravi and Carlos onscreen — of course, they have a dance and music face-off but it is too short given how we would love to see more of Prabhu Deva’s dancing on screen. Himesh Reshammiya however channels his Ravi Kumar avatar to the hilt; and earns the most cheers and whistles in the theatre. 

For a film that sets expectations right at the beginning, and is unapologetic in owning its cheesy romance, and logic-defying stunts, Badass Ravi Kumar is definitely fun in parts, but also gets exhausting pretty quickly, even if you are committed to the willing suspension of disbelief required for a film like this one. The second half in particular feels needlessly drawn out.