Film Review | Rowdy Rathore

Angry dud in slo mo

The heaving, animated shrieks of predictable villains, self-glorifying one-liners bereft of wit or irony, puerile bimbo schtick (in this case, those of a Bihari Barbie) and unimaginative post-production drollery. We’ve seen them all, haven’t we, in the genre of action films adapted from uninspired south Indian originals?

With Rowdy Rathore, directed by talented dancer and choreographer Prabhudeva, this genre, already unfortunately prolific in Bollywood, has reached its nadir.

Rowdy Rathore is an assault on every sense; it never reaches close to any mental faculty. The film does not excel in anything. The story has gaping holes and has unintentionally illogical and absurd turns. The writing and performances are without any punches or surprises. The one-liners are platitudes which won’t extract even a chuckle.

Akshay Kumar plays the lead double roles of Shiva, the petty thief, and Vikram, the fearless policeman. We meet him first in the supposedly comedic avatar of a thief in Mumbai who dupes people and his own stupid flunkey of thousands of rupees. Being a thief was perhaps never so effortlessly boring in Indian movies as it is here. Shiva steals phones even as people are talking on them.

This guy, seemingly bored of being a thief, is smitten by Priya (Sonakshi Sinha), a girl from Patna visiting Mumbai for a wedding. The vacuous and naïve small-town girl makes Shiva promise he will start on a clean slate.

Incidentally, Shiva is the mirror image of Vikram Rathore, a policeman in a neighbouring village, Devgarh, who rose against the local, exploitative ganglord. The bad guys believe he is dead. Shiva and Vikram, mired in a plot driven by mistaken identities, finally avenge the oppressed of Devgarh.

Kumar hams and grins his way through. No surprises there. I have not watched the original or its second version, the Tamil remake, but Rowdy Rathore plummets a few notches below the worst representatives of this kind of film-making because of the unimaginative way in which slow motion is used.

Kumar is agile; “stunts actor” could possibly describe him best. We don’t see any of his stunts. Every action sequence explodes on the screen in loud slow motion. Colours change and artificial effects drown what the hero is trying to do. Slow motion is an old, overused technique in cinema, and if not used sparingly, it only means one thing: There’s not much to a scene, so stretch it, expand it, make it unreal, like an underdeveloped video game. Rowdy Rathore suffers from a case of slow-motion diarrhoea.

Sinha has an ornamental role, with little to do. There are absolutely no redeeming qualities in this script, and in this film. The songs, the foolproof Bollywood staple, are picturized without any flair—coming from Prabhudeva that is just a reiteration of the callous film-making at work here.

“Don’t angry me,” says Rowdy. I say, angry yourself in the first half-hour of this film’s running time. And then you will walk out of the theatre.

FILM REVIEW | SNOW WHITE & THE HUNTSMAN

This one’s not for the children

By Udita Jhunjhunwala

This epic action-adventure is the second interpretation of the ageless fairy tale of ‘Snow White and the Seven Dwarves’ to come out this year. After Tarsem Singh’s ‘Mirror Mirror’, ad film-maker Rupert Sanders brings his vision to ‘Snow White & the Huntsman’. This rendition, written by Evan Daugherty, is darker, more violent and suffused with dollops of testosterone.

Kristen Stewart, of ‘Twilight’ fame, plays the good and pure princess Snow White, the only person in the land who can defeat the powerful queen Ravenna. Charlize Theron embraces the role of the evil, wicked queen with mystical powers wholeheartedly. Even as Ravenna resists ageing while wreaking havoc on the kingdom, Snow White escapes years of captivity, determined to restore her father’s kingdom to its glory days.

Chris Hemsworth, last seen as Thor in ‘The Avengers’, plays the huntsman who takes on the task of protecting Snow White. The production notes for the film state that he trains her in the art of war; however, there is only one scene in which he teaches her one simple move! Sam Claflin plays William, the prince who has been besotted with Snow White from childhood. She has two suitors —who will she choose as her knight in shining armour?

This is just one of the many unpredictable variations of a well-loved children’s tale. Giving a decidedly adult and grim spin to the story, there are plenty of battles, deaths and destruction. Yet, it all feels rather dull. The questionable performances, overall gloom and absence of the key ingredients of a Prince Charming, romance and hope make the movie leaden. It might have been more fun had the makers taken themselves a little less seriously. Note to parents: This one’s not for the children.

Rowdy Rathore and Snow White & the Huntsman released in theatres on Friday.