KHILADI 786 - Has very few funny moments and unnecessarily uses religious symbols to woo the viewers. (Review by Bobby Sing)

With a vision of repeating the success story of his ROWDY RATHORE, Akshay Kumar returns with another action comedy which unfortunately stands nowhere close to that fairly entertaining HIT. So if you considered ROWDY RATHORE as an average film then this goes to an even lower level and has not got much in the name of plot, action, comedy or drama. And the only merit of the project is its better soundtrack which can be easily enjoyed alone without relating it to the film at all.

Therefore there is nothing to write about in details about KHILADI 786 as a movie experience to be honest. It is quite similar to Rohit Shetty kind of newly invented cinema which does suits the requirement of a certain section of viewers as proved by the recent box office results. Director Ashish R. Mohan strictly follows his mentor Rohit, right from the first frame to the last including the art direction and colours of the walls used in his sets too. The film’s title strongly stressing upon Akshay’s personal brand of KHILADI has nothing related to it exactly and further it also hasn’t got anything to do with the religious symbols used in it scenes boldly (the subject is later discussed in details).

Based on a thin storyline (written by the producer-actor Himesh Reshamiya himself), the first half does give you few moments to enjoy along with the much publicized action sequences. But the second half continues to slide downward & drags till the end resulting in an uninteresting film altogether. So despite of some good foot tapping songs, KHILADI 786 fails to keep you engaged and one easily feels like walking away even before it officially ends. Hugely depending upon the Khiladi, Akshay Kumar alone, it wouldn’t be a largely satisfying movie for even his die-hard fans waiting for another hit from their favourite Star in 2012.

Though Akshay performs well with a great confidence but there are very few good comic sequences featuring the veteran (known for his comic timing) in the script and then his simply absurd or silly double role in the climax further ruins the whole project completely. Himesh does more than one role in the film. He is the producer, writer, singer, music composer and also the key supporting actor standing next to Akshay. Now its not that he has performed bad or loud but still the particular act could have shaped better if given to an actor like Ritesh Deshmukh. Asin is the same as usual posing the glamour doll in the project and it seems she is simply not interested in something else even after doing so many similar acts in her previous films. Mithun Chakraborty is not as impressive as he was in Housefull 2 and I couldn’t understand why Raj Babbar accepted such kind of minuscule role. Sanjay Mishra and Mukesh Tiwari excel in their comic acts but Johny Lever certainly did this cameo only to honor his relations with the team. In the rest of the cast Manoj Joshi, Mukesh Rishi & Mushtaq Khan get nothing significant to do, whereas Rahul Singh, Gurpreet Ghuggi and Bharti remain wasted.

Shot perfectly as a clone product of Rohit Shetty films, it has a lazy kind of pace with action sequences and songs coming every 10-15 minutes supported by some hugely uninspiring background score. Putting it together KHILADI 786 has only got some good dancing tracks to entertain you till they last and nothing else in the name of content.

However the film gave me one important insight which I would like to share with all friends here, about how we are making films today with confused characters and a silly amalgamation of religious symbols to woo the innocent viewers, which was not a part of our Hindi Cinema in the past.

An entertaining film, whether its based on some meaningful subject or is just a mindless comic thriller made to make you laugh, largely depends upon its lead hero and his characterization in the script, saying his strong dialogues with conviction. For instance, if seen from that angle then the most illogical, absurd or unimaginable sequences used to be there in the later films of Manmohan Desai.  But the maestro used to portray them with such a powerful characterization on the screen that everyone enjoyed and even clapped for them whole heartedly. And it all became possible due to his characters written exceptionally well with attention given to even the minor details of their origin, religion, getup and costume accessories.

Whereas in the current venture, we have Akshay Kumar as a totally confused character who really doesn’t know in what religion he believes in, how he has to respect it and why? To be specific, here we have a hero who proudly says that he is a born Punjabi (having a multi-cultured Punjabi family) and then shows 786 written on his palm with some vague lines. To support his both Punjabi & Muslim looks he even wears a locket with the Sikh religious symbol of KHANDA hanging brightly and then has vehicles with the number plates reading 786. In the whole film he keeps bragging about these two aspects loudly but yet doesn’t prove to be religiously loyal to the term religion in any way in a particular scene. Moreover being a born Punjabi he doesn’t even know how to say SAT SRI AKAL correctly in the whole film and keeps saying SAS-RIA-KAAL in the most silly manner. But on top of all when it comes to his marriage he forgets being a born Punjabi or a believer in Islam and just decides to follow the ritual of Hindu religion by taking seven rounds around the sacred fire (Vedi). Now what kind of characterization was this for a lead hero, remained out my understanding completely.

Undoubtedly, all these insertions were nothing but just few tools to impress or woo the followers of these three major religions of India together in a highly irresponsible manner. And in that matter, I think they missed out Christianity and could have used one or two symbols of the Church too in any of the scenes of the funny script.

Anyway, my major concern of mentioning this religious aspect of the movie in my review here is to enlighten the younger generation born after the 90s……….that it was not done in this way when films were made in our Industry before the 80s.

In those decades of Golden Era of Hindi Cinema made by some thoughtful directors, Religion and its Sacred Symbols were used with all the due respect following each and every minute detail about them and the directors didn’t confuse the viewers about this aspect of religion in their films at all.

In straight words, earlier if a character was shown to be a Muslim then he was supposed to be a truthful Muslim rightfully knowing his Prophet’s teachings and following them honestly along with respecting all the fellow religions of the country from his heart. And the directors or the writers didn’t use to play with such sentiments on the screen taking it lightly.

To give you the instances,

Earlier if Yash Chopra used the tag of 786 in his DEEWAR (1975) which had all its key characters following the Hindu religion, then he used it with an utmost respect like a sacred God Send character in his complete script right from the beginning to the end.

If Manoj Kumar used Prem Nath as a Sikh character, Harnaam Singh in his ROTI KAPDA AUR MAKAAN (1974), then he portrayed him as a complete Sikh in the proper get-up, literally living the teachings of his Gurus, saying all the famous Sikh verses properly and respectfully.

And more importantly If Manmohan Desai featured Amitabh Bachchan as the lead hero Iqbal, in his COOLIE (1983) then he showed him as a complete Muslim who believes in his religion strongly and who in the climax recites all the sacred verses of Islam as he gets shot several times by Kader Khan.

Now studying the above instances, that’s what can be called as characterization which perfectly supports a great script and its performances equally, which in turn gave us such Cinematic Gems irrespective of the fact that whether their lead characters were Hindu, Muslim, Sikh or Christian.

But somehow we have lost all that interest, detailing and research in our written characters proved by this latest example called KHILADI 786. The film and its makers use the sacred number just to get some extra attention, with no reference at all in its script whatsoever. Due to which the lead character of Akshay comes out to be nothing more than a confused caricature using various symbols of different religions in order to satisfy everyone sitting in the theater in vain……………….And it was really sad seeing this kind of sick treatment of the fact on screen degrading our own Hindi Cinema.

Rating : 1.5 / 5 (Including 1 only for its catchy songs)