Period from 1985 to 90 was the time of fall down of Big B Amitabh Bachchan and the same was the era when one more Amitabh Bachchan was emerging in Bombay Stock Exchange and he was Harshad Mehta. He was actually called as Amitabh Bachchan of share market. When Amitabh was at the peak of popularity as a superstar, many movies earned well only due to his name being attached with them. Same was the situation in share market at the time, moreover Harshad Mehta had made it possible at own. Only sky was the limit for the shares suggested by him in any investment tip. Harshad Mehta became billionaire and many common persons became rich riding on his artificial bubbles of market rise. When in 1992 these bubbles had a great blast, the biggest ever financial scam was revealed. Kookie Gulati has made a movie on this Amitabh Bachchan of share market and interestingly Abhishek Bachchan has played role of Harshad Mehta in this movie named ‘The Big Bull’. Disney Hotstar has premiered it just a day ago.
In October 2020 Soni Liv had released a web series ‘Scam 1992’ on this same subject and story with ten episodes. Directed by Hansal Mehta and mainly acted by Prateek Gandhi, this series is too much appreciated by viewers and critics too. So now the comparison between Scam 1992 and Big Bull, though unnecessary, is inevitable. Big Bull runs for 2 hours 35 minutes. Harshad Mehta named as Hemant Shah is played by Abhishek Bachchan and Nikita Dutta is his wife Priya. Times of India journalist Sucheta Dalal is named as Meera Rao in the movie and the character is played by Ileana D’cruz. The fourth important character in movie is brother of Hemant named Viren played by actor Soham Shah. With a great greed to earn maximum money at earliest, Hemant studies loop holes in banking system and grabs money to invest it in share market and earn unimaginable profit and to run and turn market at his own sweet will, is the summary of story. Kookie Gulati and Arjun Dhavan have written story and screenplay that get accelerated after half the time. However, in spite of many dramatic situations and scenes available across the movie, dialogue writer Ritesh Shah has not taken advantage of the same and very simple, flat dialogues have failed to make the film more effective and interesting.
The movie has a boon called Abhishek Bachchan who has carried the story on his shoulders with very nice acting. His acting reminds us his movie Guru directed by Maniratnam. The incidences of using political leaders for making money, transactions in stock market, media chasing remind Guru for similarities. The director has also shown in some scenes of movie that like Dhirubhai Ambani (played by Abhishek Bachchan in Guru) Harshad Mehta also wanted to be a billionaire. After last year’s movie Ludo and the web series Breath in to the Shadows, fan following of Abhishek has been increased. It is not at all disputed that Abhishek has presented Hemant Bhai very nicely. Ileana also has presented Meera Rao very patiently. Soham Shah as Viren and Nikita Dutta as Priya also have given justice to their roles.
Though it lacks in good screenplay, dialogue and editing (length) The Big Bull is a must watch for honest working of Abhishek Bachchan. Emerged in unsuccessful second inning of Amitabh Bachchan, the story of this Amitabh of stock market hopefully may help second inning of Abhishek.