Bombairiya movie review: Radhika Apte's comedy is riddled with a disorderly screenplay, too many loopholes

Bombairiya is set during one day in Mumbai, which begins with a misfit in a religious group bolting from a gathering and arriving on a beach, where she is trying to burn a larger-than-life cut-out. Minutes later, the rickshaw Meghna (Radhika Apte) is riding in has an accident with a scooter. An innocent bystander intervenes and gets thwacked on the head with a pink helmet. The scooter driver bolts from the scene of the crime, grabbing Meghna’s mobile in order to obliterate the video evidence she filmed of his actions. [caption id=“attachment_5917731” align=“alignnone” width=“1200”]  Radhika Apte in a still from Bombairiya. YouTube[/caption] A moment of road rage, a pink scooter and a stolen cell phone set off a chain of events that involves Bollywood stars, corrupt politicians and cops and culminates in a messily delivered message about the need for a witness protection programme. Do-gooder Pintu (Akshay Oberoi) becomes Meghna’s driver for the day and she co-opts his mobile phone in order to track down the thief. A Public Relations executive, Meghna’s main client is movie star Karan (Ravi Kishan) and it seems her phone has an incriminating personal video that must not get into the wrong hands. In pursuit of her phone, Meghna ends up embroiled in a possible terror plot and awkwardly enmeshed in Pintu’s family life. Pintu is a mama’s boy who believes he has superpowers associated with a hat. The scooter driver (Siddhanth Kapoor) turns out to be a victim too. He’s a man who is at the wrong place at the wrong time. As he tries to complete his task, he discovers a murder and finds that a shady man (Amit Sial) is trying to kill him. Adil Hussain is one of the few actors in this jumble, who appears to be enjoying playing a politician who is managing an empire and masterminding crime from within a VIP jail cell. Kishan chips in with a short but spicy role, which involves a scene in a swan-shaped paddle boat. Other random characters populate this ensemble cast, many of whom contribute nothing. The superfluous tracks include a radio contest, a matchmaking scene with Pintu and family, and Shilpa Shukla’s role as a politician. Apte, Oberoi, Kapoor and Kishan do their best within the confines of an amateur effort by writer Michael Ward, based on a story by Aarti S Bagdi and directed by Pia Sukanya. A sharper edit at script and film level would have helped somewhat, but not enough to raise this comedy, with a hue of blackness, out of its own disorderly screenplay which leaves too many loose ends and unanswered questions.