Rowdy Rathore

Rowdy Rathore - the immensely hyped return of Akshay Kumar as Action BAAP - delivers what it promised - a Mass Action fiesta with a heavy dose of South Indian which now loved in Noth as well Masalas.

The story is about Shiva (Akshay Kumar), a small 'Rowdy' who charms & steals not only wealth but also every ladies heart in a blink. Shiva falls in love with Priya (Sonakshi Sinha), a pretty and smart girl from Patna. Into this enters six year old Neha who believes Shiva to be her father -Vikram Rathore . The further movie deals with what changes and responsibilities does this little girl brings to his life and how he becomes the only hope for people of a small town in Bihar to get rid of a ruthless MLA Nasser and his mafia goons.

Those who have seen the original either Vikramarkudu or Siruthai may find this one less appealing provided you are not an Akshay Fan. But for the majority of its core target audience this will be a perfect entertainment treat post IPL season that everyone was looking for.Its the perfect blend of comedy,over the top action, songs, dance, dialogues etc., everything that we were expecting from such a movie

With Paan Singh Tomar, Kahaani, Vicky Donor becoming big hits it ensure that there are many sensible viewers who are ready to see mature films with hatke topics dealt in an entertaining fashion. While one hand there are film makers like Anurag Kashrap,Dibakar Banerjee, Vishal Bhardwaj,Tigmanshu Dhulia who are trying to elevate the level of Indian cinema and at the same time there are the Rohit Shetty,Sajid Khan,Aneez Bazmee and hoards of South Indian inputs decelerating Hindi cinema back to 90s loud inane films. I have no problem with commercial cinema. Even Rang De Basanti or 3 Idiots are commercial entertaining films but they aren't as regressive as Rowdy Rathore. The trend started with Wanted followed by Dabang,Bodyguard,Singham whereby you have a muscled hero fighting with huge sized villain to take revenge. There are ample violence, slow-mo action sequences and loud dialoguebaazi where by the hero acquires the persona of a superman killing all in the way. There will be a family angle to instigate some over the top melodrama and obviously a dumb bimbo who is there to titillate audience's hormones with her midriff. Sadly Rowdy Rathore falls in the same category with nothing new to offer. In fact Prabhu Deva has changed nothing from the original making it a loud meaningless film only to catch the attention of single screen viewers to earn profit. There is nothing wrong in earning money but there should be an aesthetic sense to do so. At least Prabhu Deva should have presented the simple story of a cop getting killed by goons and his look-alike taking revenge differently. The hero is louder than the villain, the heroine is dumb than the ass and the janata frustrated with mundane life enjoying the slow-mo brutal action sequences. There are ample songs with sexual innuendos which are lapped by the hypocrite audiences and even the censor board giving the films "U" certificate. IMDb represents world cinema and as Indian we should show some respectable cinema to world. There are numerous topics to deal with, numerous stories to tell. Many directors are making good films, even stars like Aamir Khan is making good cinema in commercial milieu which we should highlight. I can't force people but it is high time who give more respect to films like Shanghai & Gangs of Wasseypur (releasing soon) than lapping on age old formulaic films so that Indian cinema gives more and more fresh stories. The trend started with Dil Chahta Hai shouldn't go down. Even if they want to remake Southie films there are some great south Indian films which can be remade, why do the same thing just for the sake of commercial benefits??

With Bol Bachchan & Chennai Express in the pipeline the scenario seem to be more bleak in terms of quality cinema … and the journey to regression continues :(

If anything is to say about this movie .... Everything is Loud & Extra ! Extra Action, Extra Songs, Extra Sound, Extra Dialogues, everything is just loud & extra.

May be that takes this movie to take great ups & great downs, there is no such thing in between.

This is typical Bollywood movie with good songs, great action, some emotions BUT with south Indian touch.

The movies takes following ups & downs of your likes, Don't like: First 30-40 mins story doesn't take even a start. Unnecessary songs, Akshay going behind Sonakshi is not that entertaining (& unnecessary) that makes you feel sad (for tickets)

Like: Once the story gets starting then there is no stopping, at least for some time. Yes, till intermission you actually get involved in movie. There is not sonakshi & any other dramas, just a story.

Don't Like: After intermission, movie still goes to the first part of unnecessary things happening, movie going bit slow & no where near the story things happen.

Like: Yes, the end part or climax, this is again coming back to story & see lots of action & fun.

It's really nice to see Akshay in this role, following Salman. Truly Akshay's best movie in recent times. Akshay has taken the part very seriously & reminds KHILADI !

Sonakshi ... really don't know why she is in movie, but Bollywood film & without actress .. can't imagine, may be that's why she has done her job of looking cute & nice. But sometimes, she looks Rowdier than Akshay (specially in dance steps)

Other South Indian Actors have done a BAD job in showing their BIHARI tones ....Those are laughing moments !

Anyway, if you want to watch a bollywood movie, this may be good movie in recent years....

Overall 6/10 !

Writing this review almost a week after Rowdy Rathore has released.So i suppose most of you would have caught up with the flick!But im writing it none the less. Before starting off with the review i must confess i have watched both the telugu as well as the tamil versions,Ravi Teja's Vikramarkudu and Karthi's Siruthai respectively.

I suppose comparing the three wouldn't be of much use,as all three of them have their distinct style.But i would give Karthi a slight edge over the other two(But i maybe biased though):P Rowdy Rathore starring Akshay Kumar , Sonakshi Sinha and directed by our desi-Michael Jackson(aka) Prabhu Deva packs quite a punch i must admit!Rowdy Rathore as most of us know..is another remake from down south.And by and large most southern remakes have worked wonders(case in point gajini,wanted,singham). Now back to the review. The story goes about like this…Shiva (Akshay Kumar), a small-time thief in Mumbai, falls in love with Priya (Sonakshi Sinha), a girl from Patna, who is in Mumbai to attend a marriage. Its love at first sight between the two. Shiva tells her the truth about him being a thief and resolves to give up crime forever.Enter a young girl called Chinki who thinks that Shiva is her father.Shiva is forced by circumstances to keep the girl.Shiva slowly starts loving the innocent child.Priya finds out about the girl and decides to leave for Patna.Shiva is heart-broken.All of a sudden a bunch of goons start chasing him and the girl…and another Akshay(Vikram Rathore) steps in to save them and ends up giving his life for the same. Cut back to the past.Vikram Rathore (Akshay) is a brave and honest cop who wages war against the evil ganglord (Nasser) of the village(Now where have we heard that before??:P) Now here..comes the twist in the tale…Shiva needs to take up the place of the slain Vikram Singh and what happens next for you to guess(or rather watch..but i suppose its easier to guess). To know what works and what doesn't with the movie...

A regular film-goer can recall several films from the recent past with a great first half and a not so happening second. And in most of the cases such films fail to make any major impact on the viewers as well as on the box office. But if a film goes the other way round then it has the most favourable chances to win over the audience.

Luckily Prabhudeva's second directorial venture in Bollywood, produced by UTV and Sanjay Leela Bhansali comes in the latter category of movies with a fairly good second half as compared to its first. Following the sole motive of entertaining the viewers (keeping aside the logics), the director is mostly successful in its aim due to many engaging sequences post intermission full of action. And that is what actually saves ROWDY RATHORE from going on to a negative path.

An almost exact remake of Telugu Hit VIKRAMARKUDU (2006), which was also remade in many other languages, RR strictly follows the path of its original without any new or major alterations made by Prabhudeva. He remains focused on the entertainment factor throughout but in the process makes an uneven film before and after the interval which drops at several places when it comes to emotional drama in the script.

To explain the experience of watching it in its two halves, just imagine sipping an above average soup before going for the main meal at your dinner table. So, the first half of RR is like an OK starter with three fine toppings of a fresh & ravishing Sonakshi Sinha, few comic sequences of Akshay and 3 enjoyable well choreographed songs which don't let you write off the film right away. It starts off with a calm first hour stressing more upon the romance and less on the basic plot. But then Prabhudeva comes up with an energetic 15 minutes just before the interval which pull everyone back into the film forcing them to expect something much better in its next hour.

Post intermission RR suddenly becomes an enjoyable ride with some well directed action sequences reminding you of the good old cinema of 70s which followed entertainment without any logic. In fact this better part of the film can easily be compared to a Manmohan Desai kind of attempt made in the South with fast paced sequences coming one after the other without giving you any time to think. For instance, the conman replaces the Inspector (Akshay in double role) without any hassles or questioning, the heroine follows him to the same small remote area as her parental town, the child simply accepts the second Akshay as her father without raising any doubts, there is no information given about her mother and the villains are easily beaten badly by a single man with his amazing power. But despite of all these glitches, the narration keeps you entertained with its funny one liners and well edited action scenes, not giving you anything to complain particularly in its second half. So if you love watching escapist kind of cinema, just for entertainment as earlier seen in Rohit Shetty's SINGHAM, then you would love Akshay returning to his action mood. Yet ROWDY RATHORE is not another WANTED delivered by Prabhudeva with a weaker first half.

Therefore as a director, I cannot comment upon Prabhudeva's ability since he has only made "Strict Remakes" in Bollywood till now. The dancing maestro very well knows how to keep the viewers engaged and entertained in his movies. But how he would handle the same entertainment quotient in his own original project remains doubtful. Nevertheless in RR he takes ample support from both the fine cinematography and an energetic background score to generate a universally likable impact till the end. Also the action showcased in the film further helps him in generating a positive final result in a big way.

Musically Sajid-Wajid have done a nice job but again they cannot take the whole credit here as the main track of the film "Chinta Ta Chita Chita" remains a true adaptation of its original Telugu song from VIKRAMARKUDU (2006). However both singer Mika and the Choreographers (Saroj Khan, Prabhudev & Bosco Martis) really deserves a special mention here, since the songs become hugely watchable just because of their great dancing steps complimenting the beats.

Akshay returning to his favourite action genre entertains the masses both as a conmen and a police officer. But undoubtedly, he makes a much better impact post interval in all those action and confrontations scenes. Still, RR may not be able to generate the same response for him as WANTED did for Salman (which was appreciated by both critics as well as masses). The pleasant package of the film is Sonakshi Sinha who looks ravishingly fresh & beautiful on the screen, more than her pictures circulating in the print media. She definitely has a strong screen presence but only requires a good author backed role to prove her acting talent. Nassar once again excels in his role of the main villain with a superb portrayal of the Bad Man. Mushtaq Khan provides few lighter moments in the second half and Yashpal Sharma impresses in his helpless character. Both Paresh Ganatra as Akshay's friend and Gurdeep Kohli as the lady inspector are fine but Gurdeep surely becomes a victim of step treatment given by the writers.

In all ROWDY RATHORE satisfies you mid-way with only a great & entertaining second half wherein Akshay performs in his full form as the action hero. But with less romance and more action thrown in the first half it could have been another WANTED for the director without any doubts. So for now, it may get a mixed response with a particular section of viewers (who love watching Manmohan Desai kind of cinema) appreciating it a lot and another slamming it down for its logics taken for a ride.