Badass Ravi Kumar Review: Lord Himesh Reshammiya puts the ‘Rot’ in ‘Brain Rot,’ one reverb-drenched cringe dialogue at a time

0.5/5

Badass Ravi Kumar Story: Or the lack of It. Mr. Ravi Kumar (Himesh Reshammiya) is a police officer who never wears a uniform, but you are supposed to believe he is one because Lord Himesh says so. He has a girlfriend named Madhubala (Simona J), whose sister, Laila (Kirti Kulhari), also loves Ravi but is a greedy assassin—unlike her sister, who walks around like a Manyavar model most of the time, mostly crying and being manhandled when her sister isn’t manhandling her. When a case takes Ravi Kumar to a foreign location—one the CGI dude in post-production allowed—he is pitted against Carlos (Prabhudeva), a gangster who knows everything except how to fire a bullet at the right time. How will Ravi save the 200 things that are at stake, all pretty inconsequential, amid the reverb-soaked dialogues?

Badass Ravi Kumar Review:

How do I review a movie that is actively competing to reach rock bottom and is fully aware that it is at the deepest end of this spectrum—one the world now refers to as Brain Rot? Self-awareness kicks in at the very first frame, where Himesh Reshammiya orders you to leave your brain at home because a slate literally screams LOGIC OPTIONAL. So how do I now talk about the (intentional and carefully curated) absence of nuances, logic, geography, and any dedication to making something right out of this haywire vehicle?

So I decided instead to write a thousand words on the experience of watching Badass Ravi Kumar on the big screen in an almost 70% full cinema hall—with a guy beside me saying he couldn’t sleep due to the excitement of what we were about to witness for the next 141 minutes. Dude, if you’re reading this, please mark yourself safe on any of my social media handles.

To give you a rough idea, Badass Ravi Kumar is written by three writers, one of whom is Lord Himesh himself, credited for the screenplay. At this point, he could fly a rocket, and I’d sit next to him without complaint—because who in their right mind would invest in a film that begins with him saying, “Tu bura hai toh main bure logo ka nawab hoon, tu bada hoke bigda tha, main bachpan se kharab hoon”? Dialogues are by Bunty Rathore, with Kushal Ved Bakshi and Reshammiya on screenplay. This is the level of drama you are signing up for when you buy a ticket for Badass Ravi Kumar.

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Himesh Reshammiya enters the first frame delivering a dialogue like a shayari, drowned in reverb, and keeps doing it for 2 hours and 41 minutes—like he’s showing us the unreleased Instagram reels his team probably disapproved of posting. If you thought Pushpa 2: The Rule was an overdose of dramatic one-liners, wait until Himesh Reshammiya walks into a room, kills some men, and says, “Kundali me Shani, ghee ke saath honey, aur Ravi Kumar se dushmani, achi nahi hai”. Somewhere around that, someone worships him, saying, “HE DOES NOT FEAR BECAUSE FEAR FEARS HIM.” I wrote that in all caps because that line is now permanently imprinted on my brain.

The screenplay—or the lack of it—worships Himesh Reshammiya or B adass Ravi Kumar for 141 minutes, every second, with every single cell in the body of each person who got paid to tag along on this CGI-filled ride. You can see that the cars were placed in front of a green screen, with some people shaking them to create the illusion of movement. But then Himesh walks out, defying everything that can possibly be defied—including physics, logic, and his hairstyle—delivers a dialogue, fires a CGI bullet (which tickles more than it wounds), and walks away like an assassin rather than a police officer. LOGIC OPTIONAL!

Badass Ravi Kumar tries to be a film that embraces all stereotypes while attempting to stay relevant. How else do you explain characters named Madhubala, Laila, and Carlos, a godman as the head of operations, and some random dudes with mildly hairy cleavages and gold chains named Mustafa and Rana? But wait—Ravi was once suspended from the police force because of his long hair. That’s unique. The lady on my right told her teenage son, “See, that’s what happens when you grow your hair.” First of all, ma’am, why would you bring your teenage son to this at 9 in the morning?

Simona J is cast as a sanskari Indian woman who only wears sarees and lehengas but looks nothing like the person she’s trying to portray. She ends up resembling a foreigner posing in Indian clothes for a Chandni Chowk tourism brochure.

The plot twists are bizarre, random, and inconsequential. But what in the name of geography is this location hopping? The CGI guy clearly said he could create all these places, and Himesh and director Keith Gomes made sure they used them all. I’m convinced some were even picked from the Windows wallpaper gallery.

And then there’s the cigarette subplot. Ravi’s brother told him not to smoke when he was a toddler (isn’t that an adulting lesson way too early?). So now he just holds an unlit cigarette between his lips. You see the Fault in Our Stars reference now? At one point, it genuinely feels like the prop department bought one cigarette, and they just kept reusing it.

There’s jingoism (and people are still hooting). Sanjay Mishra (yes, they convinced him too) and Johnny Lever tickle a trained assassin into submission (I wish I were joking). And so much more nonsense that my brain officially gave up and accepted that dissecting this movie further would be futile. If you tell me, “Some films are just meant to be enjoyed without overthinking”, I will personally book a ticket for you every single day for the next week. Enjoy.

You really think I have the guts to critique acting in a movie where Himesh Reshammiya wears glasses solely to avoid the eyeline problem with the camera? God bless us all. But watch Badass Ravi Kumar—not for the cinematic experience, but to witness firsthand how deep rock bottom can go and how unhinged filmmaking can truly be.

Badass Ravi Kumar Final Verdict:

This film is beyond star ratings and even further beyond expecting sanity from it—or from the people who willingly bought a ticket. Lord Himesh is busy digging rock bottom deeper in a competition with himself and his cigarette, and we all must witness it—with popcorn in one hand and no logic in the other.

Badass Ravi Kumar hits Indian theaters on February 7, 2025. Stay tuned to OTTplay for more updates from the world of streaming and films.

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