Despite being a Christmas movie, Bada Din (1998) does not end with miraculous snowfall, and it also features more murderous gangsters than you see in, say, It’s a Wonderful Life. Still, there are not a lot of Bollywood Christmas movies to choose from, and ’tis the season, so Bada Din it is.
Christmas Eve is business as usual for gangsters Sunny (Vikram Chopra) and Rambo (Pramod Singh), who spend the afternoon murdering a man who betrayed their boss, Shankar Babu (Alok Noth). They are seen by Raka (Sanjay Pathak), a mute street urchin. The bad news for Raka is that Sunny spots him. The really bad news for Raka is that his only hope is David Dawson (Marc Robinson), failed hotel lounge singer and all-around jerk.
When he’s not singing, David seems to spend most of his time either drinking or arguing with his long-suffering landlady Lilian (Shabana Azmi). He hasn’t paid any rent at all in over a year, and puts her off by claiming that as soon as one song hits big, he’ll be able to more than repay her. Of course, since he doesn’t have any songs of his own, the chances of that happening are small.
After being fired in the morning, and being particularly rude to Lilian, David is in no mood to listen to anyone else’s problems, so when Raka indicates that he’s witnessed a murder (Raka is mute, of course, but it turns out David is really good at charades) he doesn’t want to help, but eventually Lilian nags him into taking Raka down to the police station. Once there, he’s frustrated by the lack of cooperation, and finally files an F.I.R.(First Information Report) on Raka’s behalf.
That is where the trouble starts. Sunny and Rambo come to his apartment and beat him up. Then they politely explain that dropping the F.I.R. and handing Raka over to them would be a good idea. Then they hit him some more. While he was reluctant to help Raka in the first place, having accepted responsibility for the boy, David absolutely will not back down. Lilian proves to be equally stubborn.
Despite the musical numbers and the occasional outbreak of violence, Bada Din has the soul of an art movie. Conversation is the heart of the film; through conversation we learn more about why David and Lilian are the way they are, and see them develop into better people. We see that Sunny is a freakin’ psycho, and . . . that’s it, really.
It’s the end of the movie that makes Bada Din a Christmas movie rather than a movie that happens to take place on Christmas. When things are at their darkest, while waiting for the gangsters to come back and kill them, they decide to have a Christmas party. Instead of sitting around dwelling on their respective tortured pasts, they embrace the moment and take family where they can find it. Snow or no snow, it’s Christmas miracle enough for me.
Christmas Eve is business as usual for gangsters Sunny (Vikram Chopra) and Rambo (Pramod Singh), who spend the afternoon murdering a man who betrayed their boss, Shankar Babu (Alok Noth). They are seen by Raka (Sanjay Pathak), a mute street urchin. The bad news for Raka is that Sunny spots him. The really bad news for Raka is that his only hope is David Dawson (Marc Robinson), failed hotel lounge singer and all-around jerk.
When he’s not singing, David seems to spend most of his time either drinking or arguing with his long-suffering landlady Lilian (Shabana Azmi). He hasn’t paid any rent at all in over a year, and puts her off by claiming that as soon as one song hits big, he’ll be able to more than repay her. Of course, since he doesn’t have any songs of his own, the chances of that happening are small.
After being fired in the morning, and being particularly rude to Lilian, David is in no mood to listen to anyone else’s problems, so when Raka indicates that he’s witnessed a murder (Raka is mute, of course, but it turns out David is really good at charades) he doesn’t want to help, but eventually Lilian nags him into taking Raka down to the police station. Once there, he’s frustrated by the lack of cooperation, and finally files an F.I.R.(First Information Report) on Raka’s behalf.
That is where the trouble starts. Sunny and Rambo come to his apartment and beat him up. Then they politely explain that dropping the F.I.R. and handing Raka over to them would be a good idea. Then they hit him some more. While he was reluctant to help Raka in the first place, having accepted responsibility for the boy, David absolutely will not back down. Lilian proves to be equally stubborn.
Despite the musical numbers and the occasional outbreak of violence, Bada Din has the soul of an art movie. Conversation is the heart of the film; through conversation we learn more about why David and Lilian are the way they are, and see them develop into better people. We see that Sunny is a freakin’ psycho, and . . . that’s it, really.
It’s the end of the movie that makes Bada Din a Christmas movie rather than a movie that happens to take place on Christmas. When things are at their darkest, while waiting for the gangsters to come back and kill them, they decide to have a Christmas party. Instead of sitting around dwelling on their respective tortured pasts, they embrace the moment and take family where they can find it. Snow or no snow, it’s Christmas miracle enough for me.
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