Movie: Bang Bang
Director: Siddharth Anand
Cast: Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif, Danny Denzongpa, Jaaved Jaffery, Pawan Malhotra, Jimmy Shergill, Deepti Naval
Rating: **1/2
Bang Bang is a film that flaunts its resources so openly that even blood stains resemble red-coloured pearls. Nevertheless, Hrithik and Katrina are in the film for the very same reason. After every action sequence that sounds so harmonious to the ears, we get a glimpse of how perfect they look in their lavish attires in a foreign resort. Knight and Day, in its Hollywood version too, was a hardcore commercial film at heart that possessed the spirit of a potboiler in an Indian scenario. It’s a matter of little surprise that the producers took a move to cater the outing to Bollywood audiences as well. The result does a yeoman’s service to the original Tom Cruise-Cameron Diaz starrer in terms of its loyalty, however giving it an expected revenge drama turn and dragging it to two and a half hours.
We land up in a film where a girl is so desperate to find her man, who resorts to an online dating site that fixes blind dates for like minded strangers. She’s Harleen, a Bollywoody Punjabi housed along with a Kirron Kher-like talkative grandma, and has a mundane life, where her dreams supposedly stay only in the place they originate from. Intentionally ‘dumbing’ down her to be a bank receptionist, the writers do their homework well in embedding the foolishness quotient that female roles continue to bear in every other release.
In terms of the action sequences, the excuse to showcase extravagance is utilized within the confines of all the five universal elements of air, sky, water, fire and land. The film’s primary savior turns out to be Abbas Tyrewala’s tongue-in-cheek one liners that serve good to mask the otherwise-staleness on display. The so-called improvisation of needlessly throwing up vengeance and integrating an emotional angle into the story is indeed the narrative’s biggest pitfall. The climax arrives at a time where we’re exhausted of the nonsensical dimensions of the characters. We know that they shall go unhurt, almost untouched and return to opulence soon.
Hrithik is an ideal-fit in spite of all the hypocrisy around, basically for his ease in making us buy his pointless justifications to Katrina to add weight to his acts. Siddharth Anand’s shift to action, from cheesy romantic comedies like Salaam Namaste and Anjaana Anjaani, is understandably amateurish, where his measure of romance, action and comedy goes for a toss. Bang Bang ends up being more ‘Body Body’ than ‘Action Action’.
Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.net