Anarchical solutions to corruption
are worrisome. Our responses to social evils have invariably hovered around the
heroics of an individual and thus suggestive of the fact that the common man
can hardly stand up and change the system. Add to this the latest offering from
Bollywood – a loud remake of a Tamil film of Murgadoss. You know even if
remotely initiated that a Vijaykant film is not for the connoisseurs. However
you also hope that Akshay Kumar will salvage this too. He nearly does.
The film has a short prologue that tells you how we worship those who are
heroes even at the cost of the law. Our protagonist Gabbar (Akshay) is but a
Prof in Physics but goes about handing over instant justice by kidnapping
corrupt revenue officials in Maharashtra and even awarding a death penalty to
sum. The script details his mechanics and how he relates the social action to
physics and obviously there is a hallo to the action as the victims are those
who are corrupt.
Built completely around the star value and the heroics of the aging Akshay we
have the entire film telling us that there is large scale corruption in our
society and how we will have to fight it. The paradox is that the hero goes
about it in a manner that is in itself a hue of corruption. Corruption is after
all not just the sums collected. We have a tale of medical corruption and how
the social activist goes about making public the heinous practices in the
profession. Generalisations apart, the manner of offering a solution is so
simplistic and cinematic that you know that it is one more of those wafer thin
platitudes that only help in inoculating you and making you a tad more
insensitive to the cause.
However it is arguably no part of the film maker to go about finding solutions
or even going about changing social order. What is tiresome is when platitudes
are thrown at you in the name of entertainment and a holier than thou spirit is
suffocating dished out.
Filmmaker Krish obviously has to redeliver what Murgadoss had earlier given the
audience of the South. Wonder why the successful director did not choose this
for his next outing. However Krish relies very heavily on Akshay. the rest of
the cast are just proops walking in with half baked roles and a screenplay that
does them collective and individual injustice.
Yet if the film holds together it is largely due to the manner in which Akshay
Kumar, yet again points to how he is arguably the most under rated star actor
of our times. He does every unconvincing part of the story with a confidence
that leaves you sympathetic for the guy. He is obviously mismatched with the
far younger Shruti Hasan who in turn tries her best to add some meaning to her
innocuous role. However the film simply and brazenly revolves round Akshay
Kumar. The final analysis depends largely on how you rate Akshay and not how
good the film is. The repeated declaration that the tale is about a guy with
the name of a villain but the actions of a hero is suggestively reflective of
the contradiction of wanting to entertain but being caught up with a script
hoping to change society.
The film points out two things very clearly. One that Akshay Kumar is a far
better actor than he is credited ot being and the second that Sanjay Leela
Bansali not only directs bad films but can also extend his skill sets ot
producing them
Rating : 2 stars
+ Akshay
-` Formulistic
L. Ravichander