BOSS Reviews and BO Updates

The FIRST review of 'Boss' is out. A fun watch, go for it, says reviewer Ankit Ojha

STARRING: Akshay Kumar, Mithun Chakraborti, Shiv Pandit, Aditi Rao Hydari
DIRECTED BY: Anthony D'souza

RATING: 2.5/5

For people who might not be familiar with the name Anthony Tony' D'Souza, let this writer jog their memories with the mention of a certain then-expensive action thriller flick Blue', released with much hype and hoopla, only to be victimised by an excessive amount of nitpicking. What the audience of the biggest Diwali release of the time missed out while watching the film were three factors that defined the debutant director: his strong control over the visuals being exhibited in the film, the glib execution he adopted for a film as ambitious as this, and the overall package he delivered it in. It's another story that the excessive hype in the end turned out to be a major deterrent to the film's revenues. D'Souza is yet to come backwith a bang, but till then it seems he's decidedly made a clever business move by directing what's now known as Boss'.

For people who have apparently seen its Malayalam original (2010 release Pokkiri Raja' starring Mammootty and the now-famous-in-Hindi-cinema Prithviraj), not more needs to be said. However, for the potential audience that hasn't seen the original, here's a short gist.

So here we have served a kind-hearted, principled gangster Boss (Akshay Kumar, Special 26') who has a broken relationship with his father. His brother (Shiv Pandit) loves the daughter (Aditi Rao Hydari) of an assistant police commissioner (Ronit Roy), who has other plans in mind. What ensues is what the public gets to see on screen.

A remake of a South Indian movie usually has a format similar to the original. Right from the above-average cinematography to the annoyingly gratuitous camerawork that follows it, remakes never come out of the shell of their original. The original was slightly on the more serious side, followingthe usual masala entertainer staple. Boss' is more of an action comedy, continuing to retain the original's masala-movie soul, but with quite some differences in content execution. D'Souza brings in some urban style through the film's surprisingly well-shot and executed action sequences. What the film, however, suffers from, is it's abundance of generics in the first half.

Confusingly dilly-dallying with two rather different sides of a formula, the film regains its balance post-interval. What will surprise the viewer is that despite the director's limitations over content and genre, the end-product has had some efficient workarounds. The biggest trump card of the film is its stylistic and physical differences from its original. Not adopting the usual style of a scene to scene reproduction, the movie instead builds over its original content and repackages it to suit the logic of Hindi masala cinema to a better extent.

This is not to say the movie works in its entirety. The very generic nature of the first half is devoid of any impact-worthy moments for support. Characterbuildups take quite some time, though they don't provide enough to warrant their presence. For an example, the inclusion of incomplete character arcs of the Parikshit Sahni helmed supporting character unfortunately does nothing to the movie. The eventual disappearance and reappearance of Johnny Lever's Zoravar Singh looks convenient at best. The lack of continuity between two consecutive shots of a couple of scenes is visible enough to the keen eye.

The flaws, however, are supported well enough by the film's evident technical strength. Editing by Rameshwar S. Bhagat (Dhoom:2') is quite strong, with tightly knit action scenes. Laxman Utekar's (Blue') cinematography makes each frame glow with visual splendor. The music is nothing much to talk about. Some of the more well shot songs, though, are present in the film. Yo Yo Honey Singh's Party All Night' and the two well-composed reinterpretations of Har Kisiko Nahin Milta' are prime examples.

Performance wise, the film has quite some gems to boot. Actors like Danny Denzongpa, Mithun Chakraborty and Parikshit Sahni hold some good ground in the film, providing it with well-nuanced performances. While Chakraborty does tend to go slightly overboard at times, Denzongpa is evidently more efficient with his rather impactful performance. Akshay Kumar's last four years have given the viewers some heavily misdirected performances in the form of Chandni Chowk to China', 8X10 Tasveer' and Thank You'. However, he seems to have held firm ground in his other well-nuanced ones in Patiala House', OMG: Oh My God!', and more recently Special 26'. His performance in this film is a well balanced one, never tilting to the either side. That's not to say it's his best. However, considering his last shudder-worthy Once Upon Ay Time in Mumbaai Dobaara', and the genre of this film, it's certainly one of his better ones. Shiv Pandit's generic performance is not much to be talked out, considering his last film Shaitan'. However, he does well enough. An evident disappointment comes in the form of the otherwise highly talented Aditi Rao Hydari, whose performances in films like Rockstar', London Paris New York' and Murder 3' have been consistent winners. Here though, she's treated like a prop with not a single worth-talking-about scene. Sonakshi Sinha's cameo is more gimmicky than anything else, but it works.

Finally, among the whole set of performers, if there's anyone who can get the audience's attention as well as Denzongpa and Kumar, it's Ronit Roy. His highly grounded performance as the manipulative assistant commissioner of police is a master stroke in every sense.