Something is going seriously wrong with Aditya Chopra's movie selection. The brain behind the Yashraj think-tank recently seems to be repeatedly erring in his choice of movie-themes and that has clearly shown through India's premier movie-house's lackluster box-office revenues. More or less, we can say the same for Shahid Kapoor's recent films. After the successes like Jab We Met and Kaminey, the actor has come up with duds like Dil Bole Hadipppa, Dance Pe Chance and Paathshaala.. So in a way, Badmash Company was a testing ground to see whether the two persons in question have mended their ways. Unfortunately the answer comes back in negative!

Badmash Company tells a story of a smart guy wanting to make big (Shahid Kapoor), his aspirant model girlfriend (Anushka Sharma) and their two friends – a drunkard (Chang) and a skirt-chaser (Vir Das). Running away from his Bank-clerk father's (Anupam Kher) idealistic middle class values, the smart guy dives headlong into a series corporate cons, taking in his friends for company. The four friends initially make it big in pre- liberalisation India and once the matters become too hot to handle, they shift their operations to US. There, too they get a few con- successes but then with easy money and bloating egos, their love and friendship go out of the window. With the law enforcers hot on his heels, will the smart guy realize that his old man was always right about values and ethics?

The film suffers from a strong hangover of Rocket Singh – a recent Yashraj film with a corporate con theme and it is incomprehensible why Chopra backed such a similar theme so soon in the first place. The film's pacing is okay in the initial half an hour but then it becomes a long drawn laboured affair. Parmeet Sethi's script and direction, both are plain ordinary. Shahid delivers a rather tired performance. Other performances, too are nothing to write home about, except for Anushka Sharma's hot new looks and spunky role.

Verdict is quite clear. The millions wasted for making such plush insipid films could be put to much better use!