Movie: Holiday
Director: A.R Murugadoss
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Govinda, Sumeet Raghavan, Zakir Hussain
Rating: ***
Remakes are obviously intentioned to be successes. The tension from the side of the maker is directed at calculations on what works or doesn’t work in tune with trends and appeals a wider audience. From an optimistic perspective, they are an opportunity to rework on the pitfalls of the original with subtle improvisations which Ghajini, from the very same maker A R Murugadoss found acceptance. Holiday is also a larger than life film that has its own capacity to stand out for its ability to rise above a meaningless massy outing with basic sense comfortably simplified for audiences. The comparisons can wait as it’s the original director who is at the helm, knowledgeable enough about the vital elements that helped Thuppakki’s case.
When you probably think of a common man who could have played such mind-games with the antagonist, chasing his weaknesses, framing plans and executing it to the dot, Holiday wouldn’t have worked as much. As the master-mind behind the total exercise talks of their ability to swim,jump and follow a constructive pattern post the intermission, you realize the need of someone who’s fit, firm and most significantly impersonal. Labelling a cop for the lead role could have been an easier foundation to deal with, but that wouldn’t have helped it attain a realistic cover like an army return, something that can romanticize the flaws and help you concentrate on the character more.
It’s true that the in-flow of Sonakshi Sinha isn’t as natural or significant as you could have imagined it to be. She’s meant to fill the gaps and outline the film as a complete package, to add more weight to the soldier returning to his camp besides the emotional bondage with his parents. Holiday is generally slick but wants to play safe. It raises important issues about the opportunistic demeanours of an average citizen who’s busy playing the blame-game and knit-picking.
The problem is generally its extravagantly coloured scale in contradiction with its original aims. For once, you see the characters talking about little pleasures and issues of national or worldly importance and in other places, they talk about marrying bald men and planning cushy dates with their romantic partners. The unexpected transitions from gripping tension to mindless comedy is uncalled for and doesn’t help the film sustain its intensity graph. The performances apart from Akshay Kumar and his cop don’t quite register a spine-chilling impact. It’s the consistency in the screenplay and its supposed twists and turns which help the viewer control distractions.
So, what is it that the remake has and Thuppakki doesn’t ? Probably, the restrictive humor giving Sonakshi even lesser space than what Kajal actually had, which is of paramount need and understandable, in spite of which the maker takes the liberty to stretch it to nearly three hours. In the form of Akshay, the best possible choice to reprise Vijay for the action and comedy sequences, the film has a gritty lead performance. The letdown has to be Vidyut Jamwal making space for Freddy Daruwala who only sounds a terrorist but doesn’t act like one. The music is a compromise and most of the songs are cut down, for Bollywood’s consolation that the industry is ahead of its southern equivalent’s.
Holiday may not have an arresting narrative that doesn’t allow you to skip a beat but the trick Murugadoss uses is to take intricate care of the well-conceived ideas to mellow down the purposelessness of the not-so good ones.
Review by Srivathsan N. First published in Cinegoer.net
