Rating: 3.5/5
Banners: Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, A B Corp
Cast: Amitabh Bachchan, Raveena Tandon, Hema Malini, Sonal Chauhan, Sonu Sood, Prakash Raj, Charmee
Music: Shekhar Ravjiani- Vishal Dadlani
Editor: Shekhar
Cinematography: Amol Rathod
Director: Puri Jagannadh
Release Date: July 1, 2011
Tollywood director Puri Jagannadh has now entered the Bollywood circuit and he has dealt with the likes of Amitabh Bachchan and Hema Malini right in his first one. Let us see how successful he is.
Story:
ACP Karan (Sonu Sood) is a tough and honest cop who is keen on clearing the gangsters of Mumbai. This doesn’t go well with the big don Kabir Bhai (Prakash Raj). He hires a sharpshooter to kill Karan.
At this moment arrives Vijju (Amitabh) from Paris. Though he is old, he is totally young at heart and his dressing. In no time, he befriends Amrutha (Charmee), Tanya (Sonal Chauhan).
Incidentally, Karan is in love with Tanya but she doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. Meanwhile, Vijju gets in touch with Mac (Makrand Deshpande) and asks to join in his gang. Why does Vijju want to join the gang? What is his past? All this forms the rest of the story.
Performances:
It is an out and out Amitabh treat. Despite being 69 years old, Big B puts to shame all the youngsters with his dynamic performance and timing of dialogues. His body language is impeccable and his style is flamboyant.
Prakash Raj was effective and though his role was a mix of humour and seriousness, he balanced it well with his versatility and made his presence felt.
Sonu Sood was competent. He carried out his role with the required maturity and conveys the emotions in the right manner.
This is one of Charmee’s highlight performances. Her expressions, her dialogue delivery and her confidence in front of Amitabh is praiseworthy. One really wonders why she is picking up some terrible projects in Tollywood when she has so much potential.
Sonal Chauhan was sensuous, Raveena Tandon was energetic though she goes overboard few times, Hema Malini was gracious, Subbaraju made his presence felt and his Hindi was well trained, the actor doing Sonal’s father’s role was hilarious. Shahwar Ali was alright. Makrand Deshpande was not utilised to his full potential. The others did their bit as required.
Highlights
- Amitabh’s performance and screen presence
- Songs
- Charmee-Amitabh sequences
- Screenplay
- Dialogues
Drawbacks
- Jerks in sequences
- No dramatism in serious scenes
- Cinematography
- Unwanted background score in few scenes
Analysis:
Given the fact that this is Puri’s debut vehicle, there are many challenges for him. Understanding the pulse of Hindi audience, working with the likes of Amitabh Bachchan, the subject chosen to project the protagonist are few of them.
However, given his strength in the screenplay and keeping the pace of the film consistent, the movie turns out to be an enjoyable fare. The commercial values are full and few scenes have come out really well while inconsistencies were seen in few other sequences.
Overall, this is a film which is good in parts but delivers the required punch to Amitabh fans. At the box office, commercial success is guaranteed and if the hype continues a bumper hit is on the cards.
The dialogues and the humor quotient is abundant enough for masses.
Bottomline: Watch it for Big B!!
(Venkat can be reached at [email protected])
