Saturday, July 26, 2014
Kick
Superhit And Run
Salman Khan has built a monstrously successful
career with Southern film remakes. Sajid Nadiadwala’s Kick comes
from the 2009 Telugu original, which four writers, including Chetan Bhagat,
have worked on to adapt. The result, a 150-minute Salman Khan item number,
watched by ‘Bhai’ fans cheering so lustily that they often drowned out the
dialogue (in a suburban moviehall).
A Salman Khan fan does not demand intelligence
or logic in his film. If ‘Bhai’ fights, dances, smirks, utters one great
dialogue and puts his sunglasses on the back of his collar, that’s all they
want.
If Sajid Nadiadwala picks up the director’s
chair, then it’s obvious that no expense would be spared. Extravagant
action sequences, nifty dance numbers, shooting in picturesque Warsaw (you feel
sorry for the Poles on seeing Bollywood desecrate the lovely city) for no
reason but that it provides some novel locations.
Salman plays a character with the lame
moniker, Devi Lal Singh (so that it can be turned to Devil), who does bizarre
things because he wants a kick out of life. He falls in love with Shaina
(Jacqueline Fernandez) who is a psychiatrist—only so she gets to say “therapy”
a few times, otherwise she is meant to stand around looking either dumb or
dumber.
But the adoring audience applauding every
scene has to be told – in an animated sequence—that Devi is a genius, class
topper and also a daredevil puller of death-defying stunts. Short of
genuflecting before him, the characters in the film do everything to show their
admiration and awe.
The brilliant Devi Lal can’t keep down a job,
but the masked Devil is a thief stealing large sums of money for a good cause.
Himanshu (Randeep Hooda), the cop who chases him from Delhi to Poland, is also
Shaina’s new fiancé, and they swap notes about the adrenaline junkie—the kick
addict—but never even suspect that he might be the same person. Because a real
villain is needed, Nawazuddin Siddiqui is trotted out late in the film, and he
walks away with every scene he is in.
The film doesn’t even pretend to make sense,
otherwise how come Devi falls into the river in Poland, but is alive and
‘kicking’ in Delhi the next minute? There are armies of computer savvy cops
across continents and he slips through the net? Unless of course, he swam all
the way back to India. He is Salman Khan, anything is possible.
The audience is not at all demanding, which is
good for Nadiadwala and Salman Khan. They can take their millions and go on to
make another rubbishy blockbuster.
Labels: Cinemaah
