CAST: AKSHAY KUMAR, AJAY DEVGN, JACKIE SHROFF, KUMUD MISHRA, RANVEER SINGH, KATRINA KAIF, NIKITEN DHEER, GULSHAN GROVER, JAVED JAFFRI, ABHIMANYU SINGH
DIRECTED BY: ROHIT SHETTY
BLUF:
Sooryavanshi, a top cop of the Anti-Terrorism Squad is leading a mission to figure out who and what is the target of the next terrorist attacks on India.
Another episode of #RohitShetty’s cop series after Singham (1 &2), Simba, this movie is made with utmost precision for the masses. Out and out a commercial genius, Rohit Shetty proves again that he is one of the best in the trade when it comes to knowing exactly what it means to create commercially successful Hindi cinema.
After one and a half years of multiple first looks, trailers, songs, promotions, and altered release dates the fourth installment of the Rohit Sherry cop universe proves that Rohit Shetty continues his streak of one of the best track records in the box office in the last decade. He proves that he has an indisputable comprehension of how to work with multiple big stars. He also deeply imbibes the genre of big-budget, mammoth productions in the league of Michael Bay.
THE MEAT AND THE POTATOES
While police officers in Singham and Simba were restricted in their individual areas, Sooryavanshi attempts to tackle a national issue, therefore making it the biggest installment of the cop universe not only because of its scale but because all three characters feature in this film.
The movie portrays the operations of an anti-terrorism squad and their attempts at curtailing an impending attack that is going to take place in Mumbai referencing all the earlier attacks on India by Pakistan-based terrorists. Pakistan has sent 40 terrorists who operate sleeper cells in India under the guise and fully integrated into the Indian communities.
Interestingly Shetty shies away from listing Kashmir as a plausible location for the cell, we guess trying not to politicize the movie, while deliberately politicizing it by showing for the first time a back story of the terrorist rooting back to the reasons to why they became renegade in the first place.
The 26/11 operatives had hidden a huge quantity of RDX that the Mumbai police have been trying to trace after the attacks hinting at the gruesome scale at which the terrorist attack is going to happen.
The movie particularly wants to reiterate how prejudice and brutalities often lead to individuals taking up arms or joining the system to better its operation. The underlying focus is on the role of responsible Indians irrespective of their religion, caste, or creed.
IN THE KNOW
This movie cannot be reviewed through the lens of cinema that is more subtle, nuanced, or understated because that is not Rohit Shetty, or his target audience or the intention.
Is the film going to mark the return of commercial Bollywood that will cause mayhem at the box office? The opening numbers of Sooryavanshi are around 26 crores (~300K) showing that even with limited seating – this may be a comeback of big-screen movie for Indian theaters. The movie is the largest distributed Indian movie for the United States and playing in over 490 theaters across America,
The movie hits in different on the big screen. All you need is some soda and popcorn and the next 2 hours are made.
Rohit Shetty is a master at adapting stories perfectly in the Hindi language and packaging a commercial potboiler to its success. His first in the cop series, Singham was a remake of the Tamil film Singam by Hari Gopalakrishnan, ‘Simmba’ is an official remake of Jr NTR’s film ‘Temper.
While we were thoroughly enjoying the remake of Najja, the surprise that awaited in the theater was the remake of Mohra’s sizzle tune #TipTipBarsa Pani.
If you remember the rage that Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar created when they danced Gale Lag Ja, Tip Tip hits it out of the park with the 2.0 reprise and the choreography. Katrina Kaif and Akshay Kumar have undeniable chemistry on screen that cannot be duplicated. The audience in the theater had their mouths open through the song in awe of the aesthetics of Farha Khan’s directed dance.
Does the song make sense from the perspective of the story? No. But that’s not why we are here.
Female leads in Rohit Shetty films have not been so exploited for their acting skills or any meat in the story. They are just supposed to be there, quite inconsequential to the plot. Same here.
Katrina has one convincing scene a snippet of which you saw in the trailer where she reprimands Akshay Kumar’s character for putting their family at risk, but it would be foolish for anyone to say that her role is of any more significance than just the romantic track that gives viewers a break from the intensity of the cop chases, burning buildings, bomb blasts, and terrorist activities.
But she is awarded more of a personality than characters written for Sara Ali Khan, Kajal Agarwal, and Kareena Kapoor, for their existence is almost immaterial to the grand scheme of things in the Rohit Shetty movies they were cast in.
Now the villains. Jackie Shroff is a sophisticated, convincing mastermind. There is a history of comedy between the villain and the cop in this franchise but this time we miss it.
In Sooryavanshi, the antagonists and that goals are paramount, so the stakes actually become higher and more serious in this case. Abhimanyu Singh Nikitin Dheer, Gulshan Grover, Javed Jafri conjure up really great performances.
Kumud Mishra steals the thunder. The emotional scene is acted out perfectly by the legend as he is confronted by the anti-terrorism squad. It is one of the most memorable scenes so far.
At 54, Akshay Kumar is as agile as a 20-year-old. Refreshing to see that he owned his gray hair (just like Hrithik did in War). He rides the bikes, jumps over rooftops, hangs from choppers all by himself. The fun on the big screen begins when Ranveer, Ajay, and Akshay bring their act together.
Ajay and Ranveer have their own set pieces to beat up the bad guys and that was magnificent action.
Just the way the background score was integrated into those sequences is full dollar vasool ($18 per ticket). Iconic.
Fallen in love with Shetty.
There is a joke in the film of Akshay Kumar’s character for getting names wrong all the time, but that carries on for too long and stops generating laughter after a while. It does become hysterically entertaining when all three actors are together.
This is out in out in Akshay Kumar movie. Everything in the movie from the entries, the action scenes, the songs, romance, even Katrina Kaif is carefully designed for that theater experience.
Sooryavanshi is made for theaters. And will be streaming on Netflix in a bit.
We will remain partial to the after-interval part of this movie. The combination of Ranveer, Ajay, and Akshay just brings hysteria to the stands even if it is over the top.
WHAT WE LOVED
Dollar Vasool
WHAT WE MISSED
Silly spelling error of the word “their” in the appreciation slide to Mumbai Police and other forces at the beginning of the movie for us Grammar Nazis.
