Bhai Tera Star Hai Review: Raghav Juyal Shines, But The Comedy Falls Flat

Raghav Juyal has been a film actor for over a decade. He has never had to struggle for visibility thanks to his phenomenal dancing skills, uninterrupted social media presence, and numerous television appearances. It has nonetheless taken the young man years of persistence to land a solo lead role.

But has the wait been worth it for him? Is Bhai Tera Star Hai the film that could change the course of his career? It most certainly isn't. That Juyal is having fun on screen is obvious. But all the perky energy he exudes in service of the role is wasted on a slapdash comedy that drowns in a sea of silliness.

Too many constantly cackling characters, chaotic cross-connections, and cacophonous confrontations between lovers breaking up, then sighing and sulking, never let the broth settle and become anything that is either palatable or comprehensible.

Bhai Tera Star Hai, which also stars successful digital content creator Niharika NM as the hero's romantic interest, is like an Instagram Reel that is 100 minutes too long. If there is a story here, overplotting snuffs it out.

Struggling Indian actor Ajay Singh (Juyal) owes shady pub owner Fatty (Sanjay Kapoor) 10000 pound-sterlings after a cricket bet backfires. The latter gives the wannabe movie actor an hour and a half-roughly mirroring the film's real-time narrative-to repay the debt.

The race against the clock-there is literally a digital timer ticking away in the top-left corner of the frame, alongside descriptive text, emojis, and thought bubbles randomly sprinkled across the screen-gives rise to a mindless scramble as Ajay's troubles multiply. Lies and misunderstandings pile up, and the hole he digs for himself gets deeper and deeper.

To save his skin and find a way to raise the cash he desperately needs, the actor resorts to a lie about his sister. It sets off a chain of events that he has no way of containing, let alone controlling.

Another misunderstanding makes Ajay a sitting duck for Sid (Vivan Bathena), the brother of his girlfriend Roshni (Niharika NM), who has his own hands full with mishaps in his love life, dealing with a woman who has dumped him (Parvathy Omanakuttan) and his current girlfriend (Barkha Singh).

Bhai Tera Star Hai is written by the film's UK executive line producer, Sudipto Sarkar (a filmmaker who directed two Hindi-language thrillers set in London a few years ago), and directed by co-producer Vivek B. Agrawal. Its central premise is as commonplace for comic capers of this variety as triangles and heartbreak are for Bollywood love stories.

An indiscreet act, a troublemaker up to no good, a bumbling bodyguard (Vikalp Mehta) who is himself in trouble, two paramedics at a loose end, a cop sucked into the rigmarole, a great deal of commotion, and an innocent man caught in a bind are what the film assembles in the hope of delivering a couple of hours of doggedly lowbrow but generally harmless entertainment.

The problem with Juyal's first theatrical release as a lead actor is that it lacks the legs to carry him all the way to certified movie stardom. It does not have the makings of the solo hit that he might be looking for.

Kill catapulted Juyal out of the also-ran category of screen actors, but its explosive, relentless action failed to set the box office on fire. Then came the Netflix series The Ba***ds of Bollywood. It gave Juyal a major leg up. Can the title of his new film, then, be taken at face value?

Not quite. Bhai Tera Star Hai is pulpy and pacy, all right, but it is far too flaky and vacuous to make much sense. What do you even begin to say about the pointlessness of a film that feels compelled to tack on two song-and-dance numbers-one a peppy love ditty, the other a Bhangra set piece-after the narrative has already run its course?

It has surface-level attractions aimed at those looking for base-level entertainment. But viewers not up for a ride riddled with hiccups and wobbles will come away scratching their heads in disbelief. Bhai Tera Star Hai is a fluff fest that seems unaware there may be better ways of doing things.

It spins a yarn that, like many other Bollywood films set in the UK, would have us believe that Ol' Blighty is populated almost entirely by Indians. Only the humble bartenders in the film, both men and women, are non-desis. Hindi cinema has 'colonised' London.

Bhai Tera Star Hai is caught between the need to remain consistently breezy and the imperative to deliver a passable number of twists and turns. On the face of it, that might not seem like a tall order, but as it turns out, the script can only whip up a muddle that is hard to crawl out of.

As a consequence, the actors are left with too much to salvage. Two of them, Juyal and Niharika NM, have their work cut out. Juyal, as already noted, gives the role his best shot. The film fails him.

Bhai Tera Star Hai marks social media sensation Niharika NM's Bollywood debut, although she has already appeared in three films-two Tamil and one Telugu. She gets into the swing of things quite effortlessly, but to little avail.

The film's director is a seasoned industry hand. He has co-produced hits like Queen and Super 30, as well as disappointments such as Bombay Velvet and the Hindi remake of Vikram Vedha. Agrawal also produced the Netflix thriller The Girl on the Train.

But Bhai Tera Star Hai is only Agrawal's second film as a director and his first in 20 years. As a result, everyone involved in this enterprise, seemingly too eager to please, errs on the side of over-enthusiasm.

The only one who appears to be having genuine fun on screen is Sanjay Kapoor as Fatty. He makes exactly the sort of friendly neighbourhood villain that a comedy of this kind requires. He is a bundle of ill-directed bombast, absolute bunk, and bravado that fizzles out whenever his wife (Niki Walia) has him by the scruff of the neck.

The way Fatty is written, and the way Kapoor plays him, are barely enough. Neither is a spirited cameo by Chandan Roy Sanyal, who pops up in the final quarter of the film as Hamid Jalalabadi, a Camden Gardens cop and Ajay's one-time theatre guru.

Nothing, not even two immensely popular social media stars, can lift Bhai Tera Star Hai out of the trough that it insists on wallowing in.