A reliable barometer of middle-class anxiety about moral turpitude, Madhur Bhandarkar is back with what he describes as a “fun, light-hearted film”. Babli Bouncer stars Tamannaah Bhatia as a security guard at a club in Delhi. Serio-comic situations ensue as Bhatia’s character enters the male-dominated profession.
“I’m known for hard-hitting subjects, but I am a happy-go-lucky guy in real life,” Bhandarkar told Scroll.in. “I really enjoyed the making of this film, which also has a good message about the empowerment of women.”
Babli Bouncer will be streamed on Disney+ Hotstar on September 23. It is Bhandarkar’s first release in five years since Indu Sarkar, set during the Emergency.
Since Bhandarkar made his debut with Trishakti in 1999, he has been steadily rolling out films with self-explanatory titles (Page 3, about the media’s focus on celebrities; Corporate, about the shenanigans at a business enterprise; Heroine, about an actress who unravels). The 54-year-old filmmaker attributed the gap between Indu Sarkar and Babli Bouncer to his decision to take a lengthy break to refill his creative juices.
“After Indu Sarkar, I travelled a lot,” he said. It was a working vacation of sorts – he was also writing two films, one a high-octane action drama and another revolving around women.
When the humour-laden script for Babli Bouncer came his way, he decided to set the other scripts aside. “I like the world of the…
