Qaidi Band Movie Review: Band Baja Diya!

Yash Raj Films, one of Bollywood’s most reputed production houses, which is responsible for launching fresh faces on a regular basis, introduced two newbies-Aadar Jain and Anya Singh with their recent release Qaidi Band, a film that strongly reminded us of Lucknow Central. But will Qaidi Band work at the box-office? Read and discover… While the theme of ‘justice delayed, justice denied’ has been explored in many movies, the plight of undertrials has been rarely touched upon by many filmmakers and Habib Faisal’s Qaidi Band attempts to throw light on how the slow moving judiciary of the country continues to ruin lives. However, while the thought is noble, the execution is anything but… Sanju (Jain) and Bindu (Anya Singh) are undertrials at a prison somewhere in the North, which is run by Devendra Dhulia (Sachin Pilgaonkar). When the duo along with a bunch of other undertrials get a chance to form a band and perform for a local minister on Independence Day, a bond develops between the volunteers, especially between Sanju and Bindu. Their performance makes them overnight stars, but this fame soon proves to be their undoing as the minister wants them to stay behind bars and not appear in court so that he can use them to campaign for his elections. How Sanju, Bindu and the others deal with this crisis is what the film is all about. Aadar Jain, who was introduced with much fanfare as befits a Kapoor family lad, is quite average and mediocre as Sanju and brings nothing to the table while Anya Singh is surprisingly good in her debut. Sachin is decent enough while the rest of the cast has done an average job.While the film plot definitely had promise, the execution prevents it from being an enjoyable movie. Firstly, it is tough to believe that almost all the undertrials in pivotal roles are innocent and victims of circumstances. Moreover, if the film had a musical background, the least the makers could have done is come up with some better music than what was offered in the film. The characters are completely black and white without any shades of grey, which makes the plot difficult to digest and also hinders the audience from relating to any character in the film. Even the way the undertrials escape from prison to participate in a rock band, is bereft of any intelligent writing or any thrills or edge of the seat moments. In a nutshell, the film lacks soul and heart and so, fails to move, even when dealing with a subject like the plight of innocent people languishing behind bars. Believe me, Qaidi Band is almost as bad a prison sentence