Saturday 2 May 2015

Film Review - Gabbar Is Back



 

Brand Of Brothers

Film: Gabbar Is Back
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Shruti Hassan
Directed by: Krish
Duration: 2 hrs 20 mins
Rating: * 1 / 2

A remake of the Tamil hit Ramana (2002), Gabbar is Back is a travesty of a film. Why they bothered to do a remake remains a mystery because there is very little going for it. How many flops will it take till producers realize that the South Indian action films don’t quite work in Bollywood? 

Directed by Radhakrishna Jagarlamudi aka Krish, you don’t know if you should laugh or bang your head against the ground while watching the inane proceedings. Sample this – a young lady stops a car so that she help a pregnant lady get to the hospital. The water breaks on the way and a very healthy baby is instantly delivered in the car itself. On reaching the hospital, the young lady (we learn that she is a lawyer, not a doctor) tells the nurse “Maine umbilical cord Swiss army knife se cut kar diya…” (I cut the umbilical cord using a Swiss army knife). 

This was of course mildly better than the heart surgery performed by Vijaykanth using the light from mobile phones, in the original.

But the story is here about Gabbar (Akshay Kumar) who is hell bent on making corrupt officials pay for their sins. To the world, he is just a lecturer but behind the scenes, he runs a different show altogether with the help up some enthusiastic men and women. They kidnap corrupt officials, release most of them but the odd one is hanged. Reminded me of Amitabh Bachchan’s Shahenshah when he drags the culprit and says “Shahenshah jahan khade ho jaate hai ... wahin darbar lag jaate hai” and decides the fate criminal. 

That film also had a similar story of a police officer who turns into a vigilante – and it was so much more fun with some memorable lines

But no such luck with Gabbar. Shruti Hassan fills the mandatory glamour quotient and Kareena Kapoor is seen in a cameo that is best forgotten. Meanwhile the police are trying to hunt for Gabbar, a police driver (Sunil Grover) cracks the mystery like a Sherlock Holmes but is chided by his seniors.   

And then there is the main villain, Digvijay Patil (Suman Talwar) who constantly keeps on harping that is he is a bigger ‘Brand’  Gabbar eventually gets to prove that he is a bigger brand than the guy who claims to be the bigger brand.

There is no subtlety whatsoever in conveying the message everything is hammered and hammered hard. The background music is ear drum shattering and the dialogues are cringe worthy.

Not quite sure which was more embarrassing - Shurti Hassan’s character or her acting. Akshay Kumar tries his best to provide a silver lining but the cloud is as dark as a black hole. 

Published in The Navhind Times on 3rd May 2015

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