As an explanation to its title first, JACK REACHER is a fictional character created by British author Lee Child (original name Jim Grant) who is supposed to be a former American Military Policeman, living the life of a ghost with no home, belongings, job or family. He is the lead hero of a famous series of books by Lee Child in which he gets involved in different interesting cases and solves them single handedly. In this cinematic adaptation of a book from the series, Tom Cruise plays the role of JACK REACHER with a great attitude and makes a solid impact on the viewers as expected.

The film begins with a sniper shooting 5 different persons present on the same spot and then police arrests a different man who has a suspicious history too but has no involvement in these killings. To prove his innocence, the accused only says “Get Jack Reacher” before going into comma and surprises the police officials. Wasting no time, Jack is there in the very next scene as per his reputation of a ghost and reveals many more secrets regarding the killings, which amazes everyone associated with the case including the Defense Lawyer. So the film is more an investigative mystery in its initial reels which later becomes an action thriller reducing its overall impact to some extent. Yet it’s a complete winner in its first hour with lots of entertaining moments to keep the viewer’s interest alive.

In actual terms JACK REACHER remains a single character driven story from start to finish with its main focus solely on its lead hero. Tom Cruise as Jack wins your heart right away with his well presented introductory scene, sharp wit and bluntness which has its own unique freshness for the audience. And then the brilliantly written dialogues make him hugely likable along with the good looking defense lawyer played by Rosamund Pike. In fact the whole film basically revolves around these two characters only till the end, yet one doesn’t mind watching them both for more than 2 hours due to their enjoyable chemistry together. Unfortunately the well shot action & chase sequences take over everything else in its second hour and the film falls back to the above average mark as it ends.

JACK REACHER does have its share of flaws too with a suggestive climax and few unexplained scenes like the way police takes Jack as the murderer without any specific reasons and start chasing him all of a sudden. Cinematography & Background Score is great helping a lot in building up the enigma around Jack’s personality and director Christopher McQuarrie makes the best use of them to get the desired results. In the performance section it has a powerful act by Tom Cruise who is surely going to be loved by all his fans for his tough ‘Clint Eastwood’ kind of performance with a great attitude. Rosamund looks great as the lawyer seeking Jack’s help and David Oyelowo as the police detective is just fine.

To sum up, JACK REACHER could have been a superb film with some more investigations continuing in its final hour and less action. However in its present version, it majorly works because of the charismatic persona of Tom Cruise (playing a well written character) who carries the film on his strong shoulders alone and one keeps waiting for him to return on the screen with more of his sharp, timely one liners delivered calmly. In all, it’s a fine investigative fast paced thriller, with a more entertaining first hour and a less engaging second.

Nevertheless, watching it with an Indian viewpoint it’s a perfect script to be remade with Salman Khan playing the lead character of Jack, since it exactly requires the kind of screen presence, charm & action skills he has displayed in his recent films. Undoubtedly, a script many times better than his last few ventures…….and I hope the message reaches him somehow.

Rating : 3 / 5

Salman Khan returning in the year’s last festive season with his sequel of the blockbuster DABANGG was exciting news for many including myself. So, spiritedly as I glanced through the newspaper’s entertainment section today, it was full of lists of theaters and uncountable shows of DABANGG 2 running all over the city like a carnival. Hence the very doubt of whether the film will work or not was completely out of question as there was no way it is going to flop with such a wide and mega release irrespective of its content. In fact that is the latest success formula of Bollywood in which you can make anything with the Stars and still churn out money, following this perfect business strategy without fail. Hence instead of thinking about the film’s box office performance I was just interested in enjoying a good time in the theater with Salman and his hugely likable mannerisms and that’s it.

An unknown film with a strange unusual title, a strong visible print promotion and many new names in its credits were enough to put me in the obvious doubts. But still, I was ready to give it a chance since I am always eager to get surprised from any of these relatively small ventures which may turn out to be the dark horse of the race any Friday. But unfortunately CIGARETTE KI TARAH is not anywhere close to that and it remains one of those ambitious projects made with an amateurish confident attitude without any basic vision or skill.

The concept of making a film featuring more than one directors contributing different stories of their own, is not a new one in Indian Cinema as publicized by the makers here. Many similar attempts have been made earlier too but admittedly no one ever tried making a murder mystery with different sections directed by various directors before as done in THE LAST ACT.