BANG BANG: Mission Entertainment, Failed! [2/5]

Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer KNIGHT AND DAY wasn’t an extraordinary action movie outing at the first place; so when Bollywood has come up with an idea to officially remake it, expecting anything better to come out of it is surely our fault and not of the makers. Since Bollywood has now become quite an expert with remaking their own classics into the most forgettable ones, you can only imagine what would have they done with an average Hollywood action thriller. Siddharth Anand’s BANG BANG is a regular bollywood junk suitable only to those who crave for quick, forgettable and mindless adrenaline rush for their dose of entertainment.

Rajveer [Played by the delectably charming Hrithik] is a daredevil wanted for stealing the historical Kohinoor Diamond from a museum in London and can frequently be seen in Shimla roaming with the ‘diamond’ in his pocket. In a ‘written as in the script’ incident, he meets a middle-class desperate girl [Katrina, of course] with starry dreams to tour the world someday. And now the both should be together in the hide & seek game with cops [Pavan Malhotra, wasted] & the international crime syndicates [Danny Denzongpa & Javed Jaffrey] to save each other’s lives. But there is a twist, Rajveer is hardly who he pretends to be.

Problems with BANG BANG never really end. Where the original Hollywood flick had its own share of logic behind every action and plot developments, this Bollywood version hardly tries to be imaginative or logical. One action sequence leads to an abrupt song & dance number followed by another action sequence and another song & dance number! This goes on & on until the intermission. You take the loo-break, join the movie and it starts all over again. The most irritating transitions between scenes are Katrina waking up in the bed, in a new location, in a new country. 2 hours 35 minutes and you hardly see a smart espionage moment. Yes, there are brilliantly performed action thrills but no moment of shock even in the climax. If you could not see it coming, that’s never because of their excellence but your inattentiveness.  

Siddharth actually doesn’t leave any stone unturned to make it a proper Bollywood film. A bollywood film that never doubts on the moves of its hero, in fact it tries to cover him up. BANG BANG does exactly the same…with all of the film. So, more than 25 films in her name and we still have to give reasons [read: excuses] for Katrina’s accented vocal presentation. So she might possess ‘Harleen’ as her name, she is a Canada born child whose parents are dead in a terrible road accident [as convenient as swimming is to a fish] and now she is living with her grandmother in Shimla from last 10 years or more. Established in first half an hour, now do not you dare to ask why she can’t talk in proper accent?

My two favorite moments are probably the only moment I had an effortless smile on my face. When press asks the grandmother about Harleen’s whereabouts, she tells them that she had to consult her lawyer first and one media-person reacts, “Dadi, American serials dekhna band karo!” In other, Hrithik makes faces and pun about Katrina’s boring single life and her search for boyfriend on dating sites. Genuinely funny and natural!

On the performances, Hrithik manages to keep everyone hooked with his ease at action, silkiness in dance and the big screen charisma of the heroic chiseled-oiled body muscles. Deepti Naval & Kanwaljeet mark their presence felt. Rests in the supporting cast are either wasted completely or extremely regular. Watch out if breathtaking locales, hard to imitate dance moves, some good action sequences and your favorite stars are enough to make you spend [read: waste] your precious time and hard-earned money. It deserves nothing less than a place in the list of AAP MUJHE ACHCHE LAGNE LAGE and KITES! [2/5].

HOLIDAY: Think twice! Entertainment is off duty! [2/5]

It is quite hard to decide what is more exasperating in A R Murugadoss’ HOLIDAY- A Soldier Is Never Off Duty, the distasteful-impolite & offensive exposé of modern Indian women or the overenthusiastically proud praise of Indian Army? The leading lady here [Ms ‘100 Cr’ Sinha] is apparently a new-age rebellious daughter who could give serious threat to the mother and slap hard to her father if asked to do something not of her interest. Meanwhile, she’s also dumb as a doll to decide getting married instantly whoever comes in way as guys with sharp brain & good looks are vanishing fast from earth. Right!

And now the driving force; if not busy in trying to fulfill his lady’s wish to perform a kiss [???] or shaking his legs too often, the soldier never off duty [the ageing Akshay Kumar] constantly gets into a preachy mode to justify and establish how and why the Indian Army men are better & more dependable for country’s security than police and civilians. Yeah! Right!!

HOLIDAY- a remake of Murugdoss’s Tamil superhit THUPPAKKI is not a bad film at all as it has all the possible & potential ‘masalas’ for a ‘dhansu’ action entertainer. A hero who’s always a step ahead of villain’s deadly plans of mass-destruction, a heroine who’s ever ready to step in to the dancing shoes, non-stop action, solid dialoguebaazi but what it lacks is the sense of being and belonging. Though I know this is not a kind one should look out for much reasoning but the common sense not to be found even in traces is rather hurtful.

Film sustains and succeeds in introducing the concept of ‘sleeper-cells’ in India but sadly it is presented more of as a plain verbal threat and no inside out hard-hitting visuals to support the premise. I wish it could have explored the functioning of this dreadful modus oparandi of terrorism rather than just focusing on one man behind all this especially when you aren’t equipped with an impressive antagonist. Though he has the built and basics of a good baddie, Freddy Daruwala as the brainy guy behind terrific act of terrorism looks more like a sidekick to Vidyut Jamwal who had played the same role in the original. Govinda makes a short & sweet special appearance but looks completely off sync. He sure deserves better roles to justify his age and caliber. Sumeet Raghvan is some relief.

On the whole; with a nearly 3 hours of duration, this ‘trying to be smarter than the smartest’ thriller-cum-entertainer is like a dull, boring and extended holiday trip where you don’t really have much to explore and sight-see but the luxury and comfort of a premium hotel. Just fall in the bed, sleep, eat, sleep again and come back with a promise never to be back in the same territory again. Hope Akshay could hear this out! [2/5]

EDGE OF TOMORROW: Cruise’s own GROUNDHOG DAY! A fantastic fun!! [3.5/5]

If you could repeatedly go back in to your past, possibilities are that you could master yourself in dealing with the hitches & glitches of life you are destined to face but will that alone be able to temper or alter the upcoming written in bold? That’s a different subject matter altogether. Daug Liman’s sci-fi alien-human war film EDGE OF TOMORROW settles its premise on the very same. Living same day again and again till you learn how to get out of this fascinating but suffocating time-loop. This is Tom Cruise’s own GROUNDHOG DAY with an absolutely engaging plot, effective action and thoroughly enjoyable humor as added bonus.

William Cage [Tom Cruise] – a ‘behind the desk’ officer in US Army Media Relations who can hardly see a pool of blood with his eyes wide open is thrown to fight in war against an alien race with prospects to bulldoze humanity from earth. In the middle of early mental-establishment of the situation, Cage gets killed and finds himself waking up where the day had just started. Now, he has to go by the day all over again to find and save a war-hero Rita Vratasky [played by Emily Blunt] who’s entirely aware and sympathetic about the entrapment Cage is in. Now, together they have to spot the way out but not without retaking the journey hundreds of times to mug up, master and overcome all the obstacles around.

In a cleverly crafted plot when you see a non-performing soldier by chance Cage taking over the situation as per his prior indulgence and presence in the circumstances before, there is no chance you wouldn’t find it gripping and winning. Also, the pre-combat practice sessions when Cage fails miserably and Rita has to kill him over and over again to restart the day, how can you not laugh over Cage’s helplessness? The action sequences are well designed and in synced with 3D effects to maximize the effect but it’s the tighter screenplay that doesn’t leave much to complain. Crisply edited sequences and the humor that comes handy with how everything just ends up in the same ‘been there-done that’ arena time and again are totally born-entertainment. There is also a breezy layer of unsaid-unexplored love between the two but thankfully Daug doesn’t dare himself to travel on that path long enough and sticks to the promise to give you an unadulterated action entertainer in true sense.  

Tom Cruise is known to bring the charm of a star along with him but in comical scenes, you have to experience it yourself. Emily Blunt is terrific and the kind of physical energy and strength she puts in her character is amazing. Together they both flash the desire to see more of them in a more romantic exposure.  

All said and done; though we have seen the allure of time-loop earlier in more than a couple of movies before, the fact that Daug Liman gives us an authentic action film that is best enjoyable in 3D overshadows the lack of novelty in the plot. It’s a fantastic fun if action, science-fiction and creature movies don’t really mean a put-off situation for you! [3.5/5]