Talking Movies

Talking Movies
Talking movies

Saturday 13 April 2013

COMMANDO-A ONE MAN ARMY: ALL BEEF, NO JUICE



Some films work because of the story, some because of the hero or the star, some purely because of the action. Commando works, if at all; it is because of the villain. Sorry,Vidyut fans.

The villain has two song and dance sequences. He also has a pretty defined character. For instance, he plays 'Angry Birds' on his phone and reads out Santa Banta jokes to his victims before he kills them. He is called AK 74 because he is 'deadly' and he is born in '74.The best part-he is in love with the heroine. So much so that he is not interested in just kidnapping her or raping her. He wants to marry her and enjoy his 'suhaagraat'. He expresses this with a gleeful shake of the head every time she lashes out at him in fury. His strange, 'white' eyes, do little to scare the feisty Punjabi kudi, Simrit(Pooja Chopra)who runs into the hero's beefy arms and begs, rather unconvincingly, ‘save me'.

The hero, a Commando with the Indian Army, Karanvir Dogra (Vidyut Jamwal) has just escaped from a year of torture in a prison in China, having been wrongly labeled an Indian spy. The Indian Government, instead of rescuing him, decides to get rid of him 'for the sake' of the country. Karan decides to fight the political system by first fighting the local goons. He gets the opportunity when the heroine falls into his trunk biceps, while running from AK (Jaideep Ahlawat).

The entire film rests on this completely baseless and skinny plot. Commando boils down to one lengthy action sequence of the villain chasing the hero and heroine in the jungle.

Kudos to the director, Dilip Ghosh, for putting together a few jokes and a few fist fights into an entire film. Cinematography by Sejal Shah helps a little. Vivid sights of the green jungles of Himachal Pradesh, provide some break from high jumps and flying legs.

Vidyut Jamwal looks his part, with his beefy biceps. But there is very little scope in the script for him to show any acting muscle. Vidyut himself does the stunts, mid air splits and somersaults. That includes a neat 'jump-fly' through a car window too. Somewhat impressive.

Jaideep Ahlawat who has shown sufficient promise in his last film, Aatma, does a fair amount of justice to the meaty role of AK74. Pooja Chopra screeches now and then.

 Average lyrics by Mayur Puri to an equally average music, doesn't help the film, except for "saawan bairi".

Commando remains just a title. Watch if you must for muscle display, jungle chase, heroic stunts and SMS jokes.

No comments:

Post a Comment