Rowdy Rathore – Movie Review

– Vinay

Rowdy Randomness

Many years ago, after watching a trailer of a Tam film on TV, a fellow Gujju friend of mine commented that the South Indian film industry has surpassed their Hindi counterpart, especially with respect to the width of the stories conveyed. Although the thought stayed with me, I only understood it once I reaped the benefits of a diverse cultural campus life. My exposure to the work of artists down south increased considerably and my appreciation for them grew manifold. It is this knowledge of the quality of films made down South that makes me particularly angry about Bollywood producers’ propensity to remake/ape only those films that can at best be described as ludicrous, over the top and an absolute waste of time.

Rowdy Rathore is the Bollywood version of a film first made in Telugu (Vikramarkudu) and later in several other languages (Tamil, Kannada, Bengali and even Bhojpuri!). With a film being remade in so many languages, one does tend to wonder about the awesomeness of its story. Well, to put it plainly, if length were to be hypothetically used as a parameter for evaluating movies then this one would be measured in microns.

Though the premise of a hero rising from the dead through a double role and belting the daylights out of the evil villains is appealing to the Bollywood-ized side of my brain, but the way this story unfolded, it carried out an annihilation so comprehensive that it left my brain, as expected, completely numb.

The story if I must elaborate is about a small time thief Akshay Kumar (Shiva) taking revenge from the baddies of Devgarh (somewhere near Patna) for killing one man inspector-army, Akshay Kumar again (Vikram Rathore). As expected, all the characters are caricature-ish, the comedy is low brow and songs pop out at the most random places possible. To make matters worse, the music (Sajid Wajid) is pretty forgettable also.

Akshay Kumar is decent enough through the moustache twirling parts and is now a certified expert for the goofy parts that he has been practicing since the last 10 years. Sonakshi Sinha’s waist is one of the few bright spots in the movie and it does act in a manner that manages to hold your attention to some extent.

To be fair to director Prabhudeva, I was not expecting a work of genius from him that would appeal intellectually to me and the first few minutes do manage to bring a slight smile with Akshay in his elements. But as the story gathers steam and the sheer audacity of the makers in assuming the size of your brain to be the same as that of a Nano particle, leaves you completely disgusted.

Yes, audiences have lapped up 80s style action movies in the recent past but Dabangg and even Prabhudeva’s own Wanted appear Citizen Kane-ish in front of this one.  Wish the makers would atleast deliver on the promise of entertainment while they serve rubbish in its guise. Such a waste of possibly the best title for a Bollywood movie since Tashan!

Rating: Completely avoidable. Watch the Hollywood movies this week if you have to watch some movie at the weekend.

Dessert Note (DN, as desserts are served after main course, a dessert note is served after the main article):

Dear Sanjay Leela Bhansali,

I understand you do not want to watch your movies alone at the theatres. But did you watch this even once before releasing it?r