Heropanti, Hindi Bollywood Film Movie review, Johnson Thomas, Rating: * *

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Not a Majestic ‘Son’ rise this!      

                              

Hindi Film Review

Johnson Thomas     

Film: Heropanti

Cast: Tiger Shroff, Kriti Sanon, Prakash Raj,

Director: Sabbir Khan

Rating: * *

This is not a home production for the star son, yet it’s got the markings of one. Jackie Shroff’s son Tiger,  dons the mantle of ‘Hero’ to new-face-in-the–crowd, Kriti Sanon, in a decently mounted Nadiadwala Grandsons production- and he gets to do everything that a ‘Hero’ does. He vanquishes a dozen aggressors with supreme ease and agility, falls in love at first sight and then goes on to romance the heroine and win her heart, stays true to his friends who are the original cause for his coing within the vicinity of the girl he falls for, and in true DDLJ fashion gets brutalized before he can convince the girls father that he could well be the most suitable bridegroom. His unusually angled, delicately molded features also gets favorable treatment from the camera and the stunts have been choreographed keeping in mind his genetically ordained agility and balletic fluency. He even wears a foppish hairstyle that looks a little too artificial for comfort. Yes, technology has been put to good use and no stone has been left unturned to make the lead actor have the advantage. But it’s still a no-show and that’s mainly because the storyline(inspired from some indistinct south side hit) is absolutely ridiculous in set-up.

This is Sabbir Khan's second directorial venture after the infamous Akshay-Kareena starrerKambakkht Ishq and ostensibly a remake of a Telugu film, ‘Parugu.’ and follows in the footsteps of the original- but of course with a dash of ‘Hero’, ‘DDLJ’ and ‘Maine Pyar Kiya’ thrown in for good measure. Maybe he believed that he couldn’t go wrong with such haloed inspiration. The opposite happens…

Imagine this guy, Babloo(Tiger) who falls for a girl at first glimpse from across the street. Dimpy(Sanon) is having pani puri with her friends and zooms off without a backward glance. Babloo obviously has microscopic vision because he proudly sights the fallen earring of the girl in question. After that he behaves like a stupid love-lorn idiot. Risking his and his friends lives so that he can locate the girl at any cost. The weird part is that this girl lives and moves around right under his nose and he is none the wiser. Why? Pray tell? Because from the angle that the sequences in the first half are shot, he only gets to see her navel while she only gets to hear his voice. Be thankful that those days are gone when even those attributes could have gotten potential made-for-each-other lovers into a swoon. To make matters worse, her father(Prakash Raj) and uncles from the Jat brotherhood believe in the khap tradition and see nothing wrong in dragging women around or lynching them if they so much as look at a man not of the parent’s choice. The stage is suitably set for all-out action before the happily ever after can set in. Unfortunately the director decides to pump up the emotion with the hero opting for sacrifice rather than causing more emotional pain to the Jat strongman.

 Though the title appears to be derived from Jackie’s own super-hit lead debut with Subhash Ghai at the helm, ‘Heropanti’ doesn’t appear anywhere near close to that faraway blockbuster. Director and probably chief ideator,  Sabbir Khan tries to lend the lead character with all the antics befitting a hero and he borrows liberally from the Bollywood pantheon of love stories for  much needed inspiration but it’s just not put together in a manner that is engaging or entertaining.  Yes Tiger Shroff is good in action sequences and has an eye-pleasing screen presence. But his delicate facial contours don’t suit the manly heroic persona thrust on him. He has a wonderfully ribbed body and superb flexibility in action stunts yet the character he plays doesn’t sit well. The effort to lend him a wider range of abilities comes unstuck here. Romance and emotion are just not what he can do well, yet. To add to that, Kriti Sanon looks like she’s had a bad lip job while Prakash Raj hams it up to the gills. If this movie was an all-out actioner like ‘Raid’ or any of the Bruce Lee , kung-fu, Karate movies, it would have been a dream debut at least for Tiger.  ‘Heropanti’ as is , where is, just doesn’t engage or entertain, sorry to say!

Johnsont307@gmail.com