Bangistan is a 2015 Indian black comedy satirical film directed by Karan Anshuman, produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani, and starring Riteish Deshmukh and Pulkit Samrat, with Arya Babbar, Tomasz Karolak and Chandan Roy Sanyal in supporting roles. Jacqueline Fernandez appeared in a cameo. In the film, Hafeez and Praveen, two brainwashed terrorists from conflicting religions, plan to perform a suicide attack at a religious conference in Poland. However, a turn of events saw them change their minds.
The film was scheduled to release on 31 July 2015 but was delayed to 7 August 2015. It was banned by Pakistan's Central Board of Film Censors for depicting suicide bombers.
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Plot
The story is set in Bangistan, a fictitious country perpetually beset by violence between Muslims in the north and Hindus in the south.
Hafeez Ali is a Muslim call centre worker who quit his job and became a terrorist after an imam persuaded him to perform a suicide bombing at the World Religious Conference in Kraków, Poland. To cover his identity and relationship with the imam, Hafeez enters Poland as a Hindu named Ishwarchand Sharma.
Praveen Chaturvedi is an extremist kar sevak tasked by his revered godman Guruji to attack the same World Religious Conference. Disguising as a Muslim named Allah Rakha Khan, he and Hafeez quickly befriended each other, shared a hotel in Kraków and fell in love with Rosie, an Indian waitress who would never be seen again.
Hafeez and Praveen buy explosives from arms dealers Bobbitsky and Chang Ping respectively, using them to make bombs in their respective hotel rooms. After Praveen realised that Hafeez's intention of terrorism is just like his own, the two men started working together while also acknowledging how their respective bosses influenced them. However, things turned sour when they revealed each other's true identities, accidentally set off the bomb after a fight and got arrested.
Meanwhile, back in Bangistan, both Guruji and the imam discover their situation and decide to conduct the attack on their own. The latter sends a hitman to kill Hafeez in the hospital, but the police had begun sending him and Praveen to prison until they escaped along the way. Hafeez and Praveen agreed to stop the bombing from going ahead, not knowing that the latter was still in touch with Guruji.
At the conference, Hafeez sees Praveen tying bombs around his body, causing another scuffle that was resolved peacefully. He then snatches another bomb from the imam's henchman only for police to intervene. Amidst the chaos, the terrorist reclaims his bomb and detonates it as Hafeez and Praveen jumped away. However, the resulting blast was not powerful enough to kill them. Bobbitsky laughed upon seeing how weak the bomb was: "Useless bomb, must be Chinese" – a claim eventually proven true.
Cast
Ritesh Deshmukh as Hafeez Ali/Ishwarchand Sharma
Pulkit Samrat as Praveen Chaturvedi/Allah Rakha Khan
Jacqueline Fernandez as Rosie
Tom Alter as the Imam
Kumud Mishra as Guruji
Chandan Roy Sanyal as Tamim Iqbal
Arya Babbar as Zulfi
Janusz Chabior as Mikhail Bobbitsky
Jacek Lenartowicz as Mr. Polanski
Marta Żmuda Trzebiatowska as Katherine Polanski
Tomasz Karolak as Wilhelm
Andrzej Blumenfeld as Wilfred
Zachary Coffin as Stanislav
Saharsh Kumar Shukla as Kaaluram
Vinod Rai as Chang Ping
Music
The soundtrack of the album is composed by Ram Sampath, and lyrics written by
Puneet Krishna. The Soundtrack Album of this film was released on July 11, 2015.
Marketing and release
The film was released on 7 August. Mike McCahill gave it three stars in The Guardian. Bangistan was released on 700 screens in India.