The main difference between Scam 1992 and The Big Bull is Intelligence. Where Scam 1992 was intelligent, The Big Bull is dumb – from writing and storytelling to direction and performances. It is also a poorly edited film where the story is untidily told. This might sound funny but ‘hygiene’ is clearly missing in the storytelling. Why am I saying this? Because in all senses, KACHRA kar diya hai.
I had warned myself to resist the temptation to compare The Big Bull with Scam 1992. Why? Because I think that is completely unfair. 1992 share market scam is a real story and anyone who wants to tell it in 2021 or anytime in the future can do it. There is no need to compare the film with the web series. But when you watch The Big Bull, you cannot stop yourself from constantly thinking about Scam 1992. You even want to watch it again to understand what the scam was all about. Because The Big Bull doesn’t care about the scam or Harshad Mehta or the events that unfolded back then. It’s a ‘Bollywood’ish scam where logic is missing.
When you watch Scam 1992, you understand the stock market, not the technicalities of it but yes, you can tell what is happening, why it is happening, who all are involved in it, and to what extent. You can point out people and confidently say that if it’s a scam, here are the culprits. But that’s not the case with The Big Bull. Half of the time, you do not understand any damn thing about the film. That is why I said, it’s poorly edited. There is the past and present transition in the film where there is not even a blur line between the both. You do not understand when the past or the dream sequence begins and when do they come back to the present. Also, there is one scene where the family is shown to have moved to a bigger house, as Hemant Shah has started to make good money from the stock market. But when you see that house, it looks like the exact chawl room where they have been living, just that the interiors have changed to make the room look bigger. The Director should not forget that every single detail matters when it comes to filmmaking. What made Scam 1992 a hit? It was real. It spoke about a common man’s struggles and also his passion to make it big, financially and status-wise. The web series has also focussed on the minute details when it comes to storytelling as well as character-building. Pratik Gandhi’s strength was his body language which even the Director has paid attention to. In the Big Bull, they have tried paying attention to body language, but at all the wrong places. In the scene where Abhishek Bachchan meets Samir Soni, he is shown noticing Samir Soni’s rings but it was all a wasted effort. Abhishek Bachchan is shown nervously shaking his leg but the atmosphere of tension is just not created.
And yes, to torture you further, Abhishek Bachchan is, for no reason, shown laughing in the movie (that too, the evil laugh). At least, let him do something evil first to make him laugh that way. From nowhere, he starts laughing (and you start crying – KHOON KE AASU). ANNOYING!
Another reason why The Big Bull isn’t convincing: Where Abishek Bachchan should have become Hemant Shah for the film, he continued giving you Gurukant Desai (his character from the film Guru) vibes. His dialogue delivery was straight and emotionless. Ahhh how can I forget this year’s best dialogues? If you were shedding normal aasu while watching the film, the dialogues add khoon to your tears. It’s that bad.
Ileana D’Cruz: She was anyway non-existent. If they would have entirely omitted this character, it would have been such a relief. A young-looking old lady with blue highlights? Ok, let’s change the topic.
How about ending this review here? The list of blunders in The Big Bull is never-ending but this post is not.
Before I go, here’s a tip: AVOID IT!
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