Sanjay Dutt chose the wrong film to make his much-awaited return to films since it had him in a father’s role who is patient until he loses it in the final 15 minutes of the film. Now, the Sanjay Dutt we know doesn’t wait 15 seconds to take revenge. For more than 85 per cent of the film he is shown as someone who doesn’t resort to violence and that’s the biggest disappointment of the film. Director Umang Kumar was unable to handle a star as big as Dutt and that’s what cost Bhoomi the most. The director must be held accountable for revealing all the good dialogues in the trailer, as well.

The movie revolves around the story of a rape victim (Aditi Rao Hydari) whose life is turned upside down because of the incident; she attempts suicide when she is kidnapped for the second time, but survives. Her father, Arun (Sanjay Dutt) takes the culprit to court only to find that the opposing lawyer has character assassinated her daughter to let her clients go free. After living in hell for most of the film, Arun and Bhoomi decide to take matters in their own hands and take revenge in their own way, so that no one can suspect their involvement. The revenge takes place way after the start of the second half and that’s one of the reasons that many people had left the cinema way before the climax.

The scenes where Sanju Baba shows glimpses of his old self are the highlight of the film; his stare is enough to make the audience understand what is going through his mind. Aditi Rao Hydari plays the title role well although no one could understand why her character stammers. The interval came at a wrong time, as did the item song showing the lack of control on the director’s part. It would have been great had someone helped him with the screenplay because when you are sitting on a goldmine, you don’t wait to get your hands on the gold. Same was the case with Sanjay Dutt’s comeback movie, and he should have beaten a couple of people soon after the interval, which he didn’t, and the film suffered. It was good to see Shekhar Suman back in films but his dramatic scene earned more laughter than his comic one. Sharad Kelkar and the villains kept the audience’s blood pressure rising with their antics and when they were finally dealt with, the audience clapped, however, too late. •