May 11, 2015 12:54 PM
3750 Views
Dear MSians,
I caught ‘Gabbar is back’ on a lazy Sunday, into the 2nd week of it’s release as the media reviews weren’t encouraging while the word of mouth was. It was at a single screen theatre, close to home and was a walk in purchase that too, nominally priced. Let me state at the outset that I an unabashed fan of Akshay and like his screen presence and comic timing.
The movie’s basic premise is of vigilante justice. The protagonist ‘Gabbar’ aka Professor Aditya(Akshay Kumar) has been badly wronged as it unrolls through the course of the movie. The opening credits and background score is good and the premise, fair. The police communication channels are clogged with messages regarding the kidnapping of 10 senior bureaucrats simultaneously across locations in the state(Maharashtra)…this is followed by the news of the release of 9 of them. The question arises, what and who is the missing 10th official? This worthies body is found hanging from a lamppost in a city square with a dossier on his misdeeds along with an audio CD from ‘Gabbar’. The cops go into a frenzy and try to suppress this news from the media. But in minutes, the net is buzzing and the CD has been uploaded on the sites and is trending.
The character of Professor Aditya is not entirely convincing as it doesn’t explain his martial skills. But if you ignore that and just enjoy the movie, then it’s Akshay all the way!
He teaches at ‘National College’ a fictional institution where it seems cops aren’t welcome, leave aside lumpen elements. Those who do come in, have to contend with the fists of fury – Professor Aditya, who is a one man fighting machine.
When a gang of hoodlums barge into the campus to forcibly close down the college in protest of the bureaucrats kidnap/murder, the students/Principal object, to which they respond with violence. Aditya single handedly dispatches them and makes them cry uncle.
For a simple professor, he drives a rather snazzy SUV, helps out damsels in distress, facilitates a pregnant lady’s delivery in his vehicle and all. Which is also when he meets, his romantic interest, Shruti Hassan. This girl is pretty with a husky voice and attitude, but she has not much to do in the film.
Akshay largely plays his age, with salt & pepper beard and no pretence of playing a college student. Like this trend where a much younger girl falls for an older man; shows that as an audience, we have matured from the days where 60yr olds still masqueraded as college teens.
Then a flashback scene shows that he was already married to Kareena Kapoor Khan who was expecting, but in an ugly twist of fate, she is killed when the building they stay in, collapses. Aditya survives as he was out. He starts investigating and finds that the builder, Digvijay Patil has greased the government machinery and built the complex on marshy land which led to the collapse and death of 200 odd residents. When he approaches them with proof and asks for justice, he is offered apologies and cash payout. Being the hero, he obviously refuses and knocks them around. When he gets the upper hand and knocks out the builder, but doesn’t go ahead with the kill, he himself is grievously wounded treacherously and left for dead on a side road. He is nursed back to life by a passing vehicle carrying medical students.
The scene where he admits a dead person into a 5* speciality hospital and goes about gathering evidence, makes for an engrossing watch – that really reflects the truth of our medical services in cities. I completely empathise with that particular segment of unethical medical practices. With the evidence in hand, he recovers the amount he had paid to the hospital and also, a fat settlement amount. But, he still releases the evidence to the media which enrages the hospital management and effected patients. In the fracas, the owners son gets killed and he swears vengeance.
Turns out that the hospital owner is the self same Digvijay Patil, who had caused grief to Aditya 5 years back.
The investigating cops are as usual shown to be the bumbling oafs they are in real life, barring Constable Sadhu(Sunil Grover of ‘Gutthi’ fame from TV). He has a meaty role and does full justice to it. Some dialogues are clap worthy and topical like Sadhu keeps getting insulted by his seniors whenever he volunteers any inputs so he quips “Senior most officers ke junior most dimaag se idea…” so true in real life corporate life too.
With all the senior cops making no headway, it’s Sadhu who investigates and strings together the correct pattern leading to the identify/background of ‘Gabbar’ who is otherwise completely off radar. CBI officer(Jaideep Ahlawat – antagonist from ‘Commando’) supports him and acknowledges his inputs.
In the interim, Gabbar keeps sending out chilling warnings on CD which puts the fear of God in the hearts of corrupt officials and leads to a slowdown/reduction of such instances. Yet, nobody knows who Gabbar is, though everyone aspire to emulate him.
Best scenes:
The opening credits
The campus fight
The short training sequence
The hospital sequence is particularly good
Digvijay Patil’s kidnapping from his own event
Prof. Aditya taking attendance in the campus
Prof. Aditya taking attendance in the public square
Not so good:
Chitrangada Singh’s item number “Kundi mat khadkao” Whatever made her do this?
Focus only on bureaucrats. Time someone goes straight for the top.the Ministers who are the root cause…
Selective executions. A little bit of background/detailing on how he was too corrupt to live would have been good.
The ending is also fair and shows him surrendering to the law, and letting the law take its course without any filmi awakening / pardon.
The plot was weak, but within those limitations, he gave it his best and succeeded to a large extent.
The media reviews gave it a single* which I feel wasn’t being fair to the movie as the word of mouth rated it much better and worth a watch, which is why I caught it yesterday. Must say, don’t regret my decision to watch it.
This film is complete escapist fare but I and my wife thoroughly enjoyed it.
Rate it 3.5
