Offering another remake, both Akshay Kumar and his director A.R. Murugadoss return after a long gap with HOLIDAY, which is the official Hindi version of the south hit THUPPAKI (2012) directed by Murugadoss only. Now before commenting upon the film, I would like to mention that there are two kinds of HITS witnessed in the south part of our country in this new age market.
First are the movies which have a novel plot along with all the commercial elements thrown in like love angle, songs, drama, action & comedy as usual. And second are the films which do have a novel plot but are completely script based projects not bowing down to any commercial requirements of selling, turning out to be some true cinematic gems.
Unfortunately almost all the Hindi remakes in the recent times have been of the films from the first category only and Bollywood has rarely adapted any of those must watch South masterpieces from the second section mentioned above (as they used to do it a few decades back).
So following the same trend HOLIDAY also is a remake having an engaging novel plot talking about a serious issue of terrorism. But like always here too the interesting premises becomes pale as the film progresses further due to all additional routine elements incorporated vaguely and logic taken for a ride quite surprisingly. In fact, I was really shocked looking at the big liberties taken by the writer-director in a script revolving around responsible military men, bomb blasts, sleeper cells and terrorism, to say the least.
Opening with a typical 25 minutes focusing only on the romance and a song, HOLIDAY makes it first major impression with a well shot bomb blast sequence and some good twists coming after 40 odd minutes. Though, many of the big steps taken by Akshay playing the military man do raise some valid logical questions in your mind as you are watching. Still the film does manage to make a decent impact on the viewer as it reaches the midpoint. Especially because of the ‘military men turning into killers’ sequence, coming just before the intermission, creating the tension. However the impression gets lost somewhere in the long length post intermission and the film eventually turns into a below average fair only in the end, defying all logics.
In short, HOLIDAY could have been a much better film based on a very enlightening plot revealing the unheard secret of ‘sleeper cells’, if only it had kept its main focus on the core subject and looked into some logic too before portraying military men as just brutal killers not caring about any kind of law prevailing in the country.
For instance, HOLIDAY would have been something highly engrossing,
If the love angle was not there, interrupting the tension every half an hour with a song, reducing the actual seriousness of the subject pointing towards deep roots of terrorism.
If the POLICE was also given some respect (as they serve our inner defence, equally important as the border forces) and the Sub Inspector was at least shown to be a smart policeman contributing in the investigations and not just a dumb person (with Akshay always giving him lessons like a teacher).
If all the other members of Akshay’s team were also given some importance post the initial killing sequence and not simply ignored mercilessly in the film’s second half.
If Akshay (the military man), was shown tackling the issue with some clever tricks and not just ‘take out the gun and shoot attitude’ without caring about any Law or the legal consequences. (Particularly the way, Akshay gives a gun to everyone in his team (brought from God knows where), always brings home the arrested culprit somehow and then goes on killing them all who could become a vital information source for the secret service and the police.)
If the director could have cast someone else as the main villain, because Farhad frankly doesn’t bring in that terror as Vidyut Jammval did in the original. And this remains one of the weakest features of the movie arguably.
If the writer-director could have spared some deep thoughts on the investigations shown in this so called crime thriller! Like it was really silly for a sub-inspector and a military man picking up a marriage album from a murder scene with their bare hands (reaching first)……….the album which has been touched by the murderer himself just a few minutes back. The main villain finding them all by just the reference of ‘Suit-Coats’ Or a police dog going straight into the hideout where the terrorists have taken the girls, looking like a typical Bollywood insertion.
If the editors could have shortened the film by at least 20-25 minutes, sparing us the pain of watching almost three hours of an average content.
And if the subject of ‘Sleeper Cells’ was tackled more responsibly, spreading the awareness among the people, as there can always be another of those residing just around us posing as a reputed citizen.
Coming back to where I started, actually the problem lies in the main motive of earning some quick bucks at the box office only which forces the makers to go on adding many unrequired sub-plots, glamour, romance, action and songs into an otherwise decent project talking about something extremely serious.
Adding to its positives, the film has got the looks of a biggie, with some fine actions sequences shot well, along with a racy background score providing a good support. But adding to the downers it has a pretty ordinary soundtrack composed by Pritam, who is known for churning out hits in his every film.
Among the performers, no doubt it’s Akshay Kumar’s film all the way and he does come up with a fine impressive act posing the military man (though his actions remain unconvincing throughout). Sonakshi Sinha as usual plays the glamour doll and has got nothing else to do in the film, once again. Sumeet Raghavan enacts his part well, despite having a disrespectful character of a sub-inspector. Farhad couldn’t en-cash the big opportunity given and Zakir Hussain remains wasted in just a few scenes. But the one actor who does bring some smiles on your faces is the one and only Govinda, making a sweet cameo as Akshay’s senior.
In all, you can watch HOLIDAY for its novel (but lost in translation) subject of sleeper cells portrayed well only in the first half. But don’t search for any logic behind all the killings made by a military man just like that. As a matter of fact HOLIDAY strongly made me realize that the famous rule of ‘Keep your thinking minds at homes’ is now applicable on our Hindi Thrillers too and not only confined to just Comedies.
Plus it once again gave me the thought that what kind of creative satisfaction a director gets by directing the same film again, frame to frame in a different language repeatedly?
Rating : 2 / 5
