Seriously Entertaining. Review on Brothers

Two brothers born to different mothers grow up together but now at loggerheads.

If you have not yet watched the 2011 Hollywood film ‘Warrior’, I recommend you watch the Indian version. Though the core of the plot is untouched, the variations made for the Indian audience is apt and emotionally captivating.

Story: Monty(Siddharth Malhotra), son of a street fighter Gary Fernandes(Jackie Shroff) is born illegitimate. Maria(Shefali Shah), Gary’s wife and mother of David(Akshay Kumar) though hurt by her husband’s infidelity, accepts Monty as her second son after his mother expired.

Gary is an irresponsible father, an uncaring husband and an alcoholic, regularly causing disturbing atmosphere at home.  David holds his father responsible for ruining his life and blames Monty as the cause of his mother’s death and thus dissociates himself from the family. David is a Physics teacher at a school and married to Jenny(Jacquelene Fernandes).

He has a daughter with kidney problems and struggles to make both ends meet. Being trained to fight, he enters the fighting arena to earn a quick buck. His stamina, strength and patience wins him the fight. Monty on the other hand is a hot headed fighter losing to his anger. While the illegal street fights continue in Mumbai, Peter Breganza(Kiran Kumar) wants to turn this illegal sport into an official tournament involving local and international fighters. Thus an approval is finally obtained for Right to Fight – R2F tournament to be held in Mumbai. David and Monty qualify in this Rs.9 crore prize money tournament and go all out with the determination to win the title.

Cast Performance: With aptly selected cast, the performances came out pretty strong. Akshay with his real greyish beard looked tough enough and suited the character of a struggling father.  Jacquelene was superb and managed the middle class look. Jackie Shroff was outstanding and poured his heart out in his character of drowning in his sorrows.  Siddharth looked macho and smashing. Ashutosh Rana was impressive as mentor of David. Shefali Shah as wife of Gary and mother of David was inspiring.

Direction: This being a remake made the work a bit easier for Karan Malhotra in the sense that the plot did not go astray and he had to concentrate only on the screenplay. With an experienced and powerful cast he exploited their full potential and managed to bring you a refurbished product worth your time and money. He took time to unfold the suspense as to why the brothers were at loggerheads which kept the audience rooted. The editing was pretty exceptional with flashback scenes nicely interwoven.  The songs and lyrics added great value and brought about the much needed emotional touch.

Intended Message: Self-Control, patience and forgiveness are virtues that are blessed. An irresponsible attitude and an unforgiving heart is where the devil resides, causing relationships to deteriorate resulting in people being poles apart. A simple “Sorry” can instantly mend relationships and communication can overcome barriers. Just being a father or husband is not enough to gain respect of your children unless they see you acting responsibly.

Conclusion: This big banner product of Fox International, Lionsgate and Dharma Productions is an emotional action drama with interesting storyline modified especially for the Indian audience. The movie is serious and leaves no room for amusement so please be aware as one may find some scenes slow and boring. There are couple of let downs such as the commentators of the tournament who sounded silly or the sole unwanted glamour song ‘Mera Naam Mary Hai’ with unimpressive choreography. A

lso, Mumbai Street fighters qualifying in the tournament along with famed and trained international mixed martial arts fighters seemed unconvincing. However, the movie is reasonably paced without any time wasters or irritating slow motions. Training of the lead fighters is crisp and contained only in a song.  The action choreography was impressive as there were no close up or shaky camera techniques used in the bouts. ‘Brothers’ is worth a watch as I felt there is a lesson to learn for each one of us and it depends who you view yourself in the characters.