Main Tera Hero - Reviews & Box Office Updates - Page 4

Main Tera Hero movie review: Varun is the star of the movie as he carries the movie with an energetic and humorous performance

'MAIN TERA HERO'
U/A; COMEDY/DRAMA/ROMANCE
DIRECTOR: DAVID DHAWAN
CAST: VARUN DHAWAN, ILEANA D'CRUZ, NARGIS FAKHRI
RATING:

David Dhawan and Govinda teamed up in the '90s to give us a unique 'leave your brains at home' genre of films. Movies with their slapstick, unabashedly-playing-to-the-gallery kind of humour which entertained nevertheless, thanks to the silliness of it all and yes, due to Govinda's genius comic timing.

Varun Dhawan (centre), Ileana D'Cruz (right) and Nargis Fakhri in 'Main Tera Hero'

Dhawan tries to recreate the tried-and-tested formula with 'Main Tera Hero', although with one difference: Varun Dhawan replaces Govinda. But Dhawan plays it extra-safe by making Varun clone all of Govinda's mannerisms, his special dialogue delivery and also his tight white trousers look. One doesn't really mind the "inspired" performance, considering that Govinda deserves the tribute, but the whole exercise only makes you miss Govinda even more.

Varun Dhawan is Sreenath Seenu' Prasad, a wickedly mischievous chap who everyone seems to love to hate. Seenu decides to educate himself in Bangalore, but once in the campus he does everything but study. Seenu oscillates between talking to pictures and idols of God (God-ji responds in Salman Khan's voice, if you please) and wooing Sunaina (Illeana D'Cruz). Sunaina is already engaged to the terror of a policeman, Angad (Arunoday Singh). Seenu is the typical masala hero, who can flash his moobs at a moment's notice, beat multiple goons to pulp at a time and can also do enough pelvic thrusts for the songs in between. Ayesha (Nargis Fakhri), who is the daughter of a Asia aur Africa ka gangster' (multi-tasking, anyone?), played by Anupam Kher, falls for Seenu's charm and wants him for herself.

A hero playing out the frontbenchers' fantasy, the long-legged heroines showing skin and the innumerable gags might have worked wonders in the '90s. Two decades later, when the movies have gone through a rather dramatic transformation, it seems silly that Dhawan is still dealing the same old cards (with a new Joker, of course). The film does have some hilarious scenes, like Seenu's communication with God or when Kher's sentences end in an echo. Ironically, while the script and the film are refreshingly unpretentious, it's the simplicity that gets to you after a point. The flashy sets, the eardrum-challenging music and the sexy-but-intolerably dumb women might have worked two decades ago but now they just add to the overall cacophony.

Varun is still a greenhorn but he does a decent job and also has good screen presence. He has a long way to go before he reaches Govinda's league so it might be better for him to carve his own path. Illeana and Nargis are the pretty props and they do just that. Poor Arunoday Singh seems to be the most confused as his character changes as per the scriptwriter's whim and fancy, without any warning whatsoever.

A timepass of a movie, it can be watched once. Only wish Dhawan had taken some risks rather than sticking to the age-old formula that worked for him eons ago.

Bollywood review: Varun Dhawan fails to do a Salman Khan in 'Main Tera Hero'

Flamboyant filmmaker David Dhawan's movie merely shows doting father's love for his son and nothing else

Varun Dhawan, flanked by Nargis Fakhri and Illeana D'Cruz.

Parents are often guilty of overlooking their children's flaws and believing that their kids are nothing less than geniuses.

Well, Main Tera Hero' is just an example of how a doting father indulges that weakness.

David Dhawan revives his brand of inane comedy and pushes his son Varun into the spotlight. There's just a handful of frames that don't feature Varun and those can be attributed as David's act of kindness to his audience.

What the director fails to remember is that much of his comedies banked entirely on the actor's fan following.

Whether it was Govinda's quirky style or Salman Khan's charming moves, they each added a unique flavour to the Dhawan comedy.

Those associations were much celebrated at the box office, despite the films not investing in intelligent humour and blatantly banking on buffoonery and unimaginative gags because of the big stars.

David's not-so-little boy, however, lacks that kind of talent or charisma to make these senseless rom-coms work. He, in fact, turns this comedy into a tragedy, unintentionally of course, despite earnestly following dad's rulebook on heroism.

Varun flashes his (newly acquired) six-abs, flexes his muscles, strips down to his shorts, flaunts his quirky pelvic moves (and even apes Michael Jackson a few times), and romances pretty, pencil-thin girls, but never quite emerges a likeable hero.

It's not his lack of experience (he's just a movie old) that we'd blame for the casting blunder, but his lack of uninhibited comic flair.

Even the two gorgeous women that his dad presents for him, are high on glam but low on talent. Not that David Dhawan heroines are required to do much other than flash their slender bodies and shake them to funky beats, but even those simple feats appear exhausting for Nargis Fakhri and Illeana D'Cruz.

The supporting cast is reduced to mere caricatures, with seasoned actors like Saurabh Shukla muted out midway, and Anupam Kher left to echo his own voice.

Even the hunk Arunoday Singh finds a schizophrenic baddie to portray, whose knock-knock' games turn excruciatingly annoying after a point. Probably his lack of enthusiasm in clowning around is evident in how he turns this act into his (tiny) Bollywood career's all-time low.

While it's tough to find the weakest link, Nargis' pout is a prominent contender.

The jokes on Bollywood star Katrina Kaif's broken Hindi, or the attempt at tweaking one of Ranbir Kapoor's popular dance track, or even injecting Salman's name at every given opportunity falls flat.

If anything, Main Tera Hero' requires a certain amount of willpower to watch the entire film even when you know that freedom and sanity is just a door away.

Don't step in. Not if you have a choice.

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(Any opinions expressed here are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters)

When you think about it, David Dhawan 's latest comedy is more tragic than comic. In almost every frame of "Main Tera Hero ", you see glimpses of a film-maker desperately trying to restore his former glory by using the same gags in a newer, more polished setting " and failing miserably.

When Dhawan hit box-office gold in the 1990's, the humour in his films was often crude and irreverent. His most successful leading man,Govinda , often played a flashy, street-smart but pudgy hero.

In "Main Tera Hero", Dhawan's leading man " his son Varun " has a perfectly sculpted body (which he is not averse to showing off; even the film's credits show him flexing muscles and working out) and there are holier-than-thou lectures on how men should stop objectifying women.

Keep in mind though that 10 minutes after this lecture, Dhawan's character Seenu (short for Srinivas Prasad) compares a girl to a pre-paid SIM card that has been registered in someone else's name.

This is the launch film that Dhawan clearly had in mind for his son. Varun gets to do everything " fighting off villains, dancing with two women, making funny faces. The rest of the cast, it would seem, is around just to service these actions. As a college student who does everything but study, Seenu displays his buff body at every opportunity.

He falls in love with Sunaina (Ileana D'Cruz ) on the first day of college, but his overtures are discouraged because Angad (Arunoday Singh ), a local policeman with an anger management problem, is in love with her. To add to the chaos, Sunaina is kidnapped by Ayesha (Nargis Fakhri ), the daughter of "the biggest drug lord in Asia and Africa". Ayesha is in love with Seenu, and is sure that kidnapping Seenu's girlfriend would make him come after her. Why not just kidnap Seenu then, you might ask. But this is not the time and place for logic.

Thus, Seenu finds himself in a plush villa, surrounded by two women lusting after him. Ayesha's drug lord father (Anupam Kher ) and his trusty sidekick (Saurabh Shukla ) keep an eye on Seenu. A wedding date for Ayesha and Seenu is set, and then Angad arrives.

There are murders; people hiding in closets; wedding songs; and long discussions between Seenu and various gods " including Jesus, Ganesha and Krishna (Jesus speaks in English; the others speak in Hindi).

"Main Tera Hero" has dialogue as puerile as, "since the time I have been in Pampers (a diaper brand), my father has pampered me." The comedy just gets more tedious and unfunny as the film progresses. Except for a couple of jokes, nothing, and I mean nothing, is salvageable in this disaster of a film.