The movie Bell Bottom, directed by Ranjit Tewari and starring Akshay Kumar and Vaani Kapoor, has hit the OTT platform Amazon Prime after enjoying the status of one of the first few films to hit the big screen after the second lockdown in India.
The film set in the 1980s is reportedly inspired by true events, portrays how India's Raw agents fought ISI's plane hijack pattern back then after the then prime minister, Indira Gandhi gave the mission a go-ahead.
While Anshul Gupta, the protagonist of the film whose code name is Bell Bottom, constantly advises the prime minister to break the pattern of negotiations, it's high time that Akshay Kumar the actor breaks the pattern in his films.
A good-looking hero who knows how to sing, cry, fight, make love passionately, yet walks away with all the limelight, leaving little credit to his sturdy support cast.
Although Bell Bottom was released on August 19 and claimed a box office collection of more than Rs. 45 crore, its release on OTT platform on September 16 has put the film in a spot, especially in terms of the bygone era that was depicted.
10 mins into the movie and I could not bear it. Fast forwarded to 15 mins, it was the same despair. From clothes to hair style to holiday scenes and music, nothing makes the film based into 70s. They just added a filter on the whole screen to make that sepia type effects.
— priyankal (@priyanka005) September 16, 2021
Pointing out some factual errors, the Twitter film critics trolled the film on the first day of its OTT release. Talking about a flashback scene from 1979 where Morarji Desai is PM, and Doordarshan is shown in color while being called DD National, a broadcast journalist pointed out:
"The movie Bell Bottom is so ahead of its time that Akshay Kumar is able to watch DD news in color while Morarji Desai is PM. And the channel is called DD National," lamented Aunindyo Chakravarty.
Facts reveal that Doordarshan which was introduced in the late 1950s as an experimental broadcaster turned to national broadcasting only later in 1982 and was renamed DD National.
He even pointed out another fact. "It appears Akshay's wife works for MTNL in 1979, seven years before it was founded."
Another point of contention was the color of the Indian railways' train which is shown to bring home victims of the hijack back in those days. The blue-white color trains were introduced only in the 1990s, replacing the red brick color used for cades before that.
While some called the film way ahead of its times, others highlighted the forced patriotism issues used in the film.
Sign board on the street corner, in the film says "Color Xerox", when even mono color Xerox was very rare. People required copy of documents certified by a Gazetted Officer, as "TRUE COPY".
— K Será Será (@Un_dans_tout) September 17, 2021
Yes, "Bell Bottom" was way ahead of his times.