Rowdy Rathore: Moustache and music riot

The sound of drums beat to the tune of “Chinta ta chita..”. The villain lets out an angry roar. His voice turns mute as he gapes in horror. The cars around explode, flames filling up the screen as the hero in a police uniform, walks slow motion ahead, twirling his moustache. “Don’t...don’t..don’t angry me” plays in the background.

Seen before? Yes? Entertained still? Surprisingly,yes. The simple formula of the south is here again. The bravest of cops and the worst of villains. Put them together with some fun 70s style song and dance around it and it works. Never mind the mindlessness.

A pair of hands drums on a table top and the signature tune sets both the mood of the film as well as the hero’s character. Sameer Anjaan’s lyrics have fun with words..     

“Chinta ta chita chita..chita chita ta..Duniya chale pichadi
Toh main chalu agaadi
Sab khel jaanta hoon
Main hoon bada khiladi....

The song, combined with the hero dancing in colourful pants ranging from yellow to pink to blue are enough to put you in the fun mood that the director, Prabhudeva is clearly out to have. The fun of course,begins with good old filmi romance.

The hero with a simple, trim moustache, lives off his fingers deftly flicking jewellery off women,cellphones off men (they continue to talk without it before realising) and spraying deos which make women dance like they do in advertising commercials. He sets his eyes on a Bihari belle with a belly and can’t take his eyes off not so chikni belly. With a flick of his finger on his head, he rewinds the large fluttering lashes flirting at him. He wins her over her simply by following her around. And of course the two burst into a love song that is an ode the belly. Lyrics by Faiz Anwer do complete justice.

He: Hai chikni kamar pe teri
Mera dil fisal gaya..
She: Strongly yeh jadoo tera
Mujhpe chal gaya

Mr trim moustache, having wooed Ms not so trim belly, finds himself suddenly chased by a mob of swords. Enters the mystery man with a big moustache, Rathore, a cop whose dream is to  twirl his moustachio in the face of death. A couple of deadly goons from Bihar turn up and it’s time for some action fun.

Brilliantly shot fight sequences on rocky landscape(Santosh Thundiyil), brings Prabhudeva’s directorial skill to one’s notice. The half goofy, half action style continues interspersed with  lines like “don’t angry me” ,“chinta ta chita ta” ‘drawing a few laughs.“Sachche policewaale ki wardi bhi duty nibhati hai” tries to set the sombre tone for this non angry looking slim moustached thief turned cop.

An item song. ‘Aa rey pritam pyaare..’ follows with two fantastic dancers(Shakti,Marium and Momaith )who shake their booty with amazing ease( a must watch for fabulous choreography and performance).

Now that it’s established that this is clearly Prabhudeva having fun with the actors, camera,Bollywood sentiments of double roles, cops  with moustache, bad men with axes, women’s bellies, sound and music, one can move on to the story.

Shiva (Akshay)is a small time thief who is trapped into protecting a cop, Rathore’s little daughter, since he is a lookalike. Shiva takes on the face of ‘Rowdy Rathore’ to fulfil Rathore’s duty of eradicating evil from  a Bihar village. The weak and predictable story(Vijayendra Prasad) and average screenplay and dialogues(Shiraz Ahmed) with surprisingly few ‘rowdy’ jokes, sustains itself mainly on the songs and the action scenes. The rest is a random mix of Singham and Agnipath.

Akshay is at ease with comedy ,action and dance.Sonakshi has little to do except move her not so chikni kamar and tries hard to sound valiant with little conviction, in the only scene that requires her to act. Nasser as the village tyrant is effective. Mushtaq Khan as a sidekick and Yashpal Sharma as a faithful cop are good.

The music(Sajid and Wajid) along with the lyrics which play a big role in the film, succeed in entertaining. Sanjay Leela Bansali finally comes out of his old fashioned, romantic mode of filmmaking and embraces the new colourful, fun genre as a co producer.

If watched in keeping with the goofy spirit of the film, this remake of Telugu film, Vikramarkudu, is a decent, silly vintage entertainment.