This season again we witness a movie on a plot inspired from the western cinema. "Heroes" is based on a theme borrowed from "The Motorcycle Diaries", where two friends are on a fun tour and their experiences in the journey change their outlook towards life. The good part about the Indian adaptation is that we have a patriotic feel introduced in the plot which makes it more inspiring and entertaining. "Heroes" is a good attempt as it has some well shot sequences and good acting by the famous faces, but it has its weaknesses too. The director Samir Karnik has done a far better job if compared with his earlier offerings. First I would like to take the good things about the movie. The story revolves around three letters to be delivered by the lead duo to the families of military men who have sacrificed their lives in the war. Sohail Khan and Vatsal Sheth are the two men who are on the journey and they have to do this task as their film-making assignment to be submitted. So they are also shooting their experiences on the way. Out of these three stories interwoven in the script, the first one with the Punjabi flavor is the best, second about two brothers is OK and the third one is the weakest with only one well shot sequence.
The first story with the Punjab background has Priety Zinta and Salman Khan playing Sikh characters. Sikhism seems to be the current craze in Bollywood and after "Singh Is King" every second project has something to offer in this direction, trying to cash the same. The top most performance in the movie is by Priety Zinta as the quite but strong women ready to fight the world alone. Salman Khan plays the tough guy, does a good job, but I couldn't understand why he is made to speak a language which is neither Hindi nor Punjabi. The dialogues sound awful in the half baked lingo and could have been better. The child actor playing their son is good and confident. Salman Khan as a Sikh military man, looks smart and tough. This is the best part of the movie on a novel theme.
The second story is about two brothers Sunny Deol & Bobby Deol serving the country. Sunny is in Air force and Bobby guarding the ground in Armed forces. It's worth watching seeing the two reel & real life brothers fighting over which force serves the country best. Here Sunny Deol tries hard to portray a man who has lost his legs in war, but as usual he can still fight with more than 10 men in a pub. He tries to put extra effort in his act which shows. Bobby has very few scenes in which he does fine. So this part of the movie is just OK to watch.
The third story featuring Mithun Chakraborty & Dino is the weakest among the three as no one gets a well written role and the veteran Mithun Da is wasted. However, there is one sequence in this weak part, which is brilliantly thought, well written and beautifully executed, which also makes the movie watchable.
The sequence is about an audio tape recorded by Dino while he is fighting on the war front. Incidentally while the recording is on, he is shot and dies on the spot, which all gets recorded on the tape. The same tape is sent to his family as his last things. The sequence where his mother listens to the tape in front of Sohail and Vatsal Sheth is a treat to watch and should not be missed at all. Now let us come to the shortcomings of the movie. First of all, out of the two lead characters on the journey, Vatsal Sheth has nothing to offer in the film. If you think of the screenplay with only Sohail traveling around alone, then also the film would have been the same. So Vatsal has no personal contribution to make in the proceedings and is simply a miscast.
Secondly, I was not able to understand what was the purpose of first 15 minutes of the movie, with all those party and men stripping scenes. The start of the movie, featuring Riya Sen & Amrita Arora, in an eye blinking role is completely out of place and script. The film should have started straight from the film school scene and then on to the main plot. This would have resulted in a more crispier and tighter screenplay with all the emphasis on the main theme.
And lastly the third story did not have the right feeling which was required for the finale of the movie. Instead it ruined all the ambiance created by the first two and thus resulted in a weaker climax.
Cinematography of the movie is competent as it captures the beauty of the outdoors in the right spirit. The border fence scenes are very well shot. Musically the film has some unwanted songs along with a well sung and melodious song "Main Mangiyan Si Janntan" rendered by the one and only Sonu Nigam. But the lyrics of the song left me spellbound with the liberty writer takes to write his lines.
Sample this, "Tera Mera Viyah Sohni Chheti Je Karayiye, Agli Basantan Mainu Santa Banta Chahiye". These lines only represent the down sliding of lyrics in our Hindi film songs. I can only hope that the golden days of "Urdu Shayri" in film songs return back.
To summarize, "Heroes" is a movie which can be seen once and is surely capable of entertaining you with a pinch of patriotic feel. But it could have been an appreciable product with a different starting and better casting. Still a very good leap ahead towards quality by its director.
