After the second lock down, Sooryavanshi is the first big movie from the Hindi Film Industry to see a theatrical release. Everyone being very optimistic about it, may it bring cinemas back to normalcy post lockdown ? After seeing the Housefull board all around the country on the first day, finally the industry can take a breath.
Rohit Shetty is known for his no brainer Comedy Masala movies. But this time with Akshay Kumar as lead, he has gone more serious.The story is set against the backdrop of the 1993 Mumbai bombings incident. The chief of a terrorist organization, played by Jackie Shroff, plans a serial bomb blast in today’s Mumbai by using around 600 kilos of RDX hidden somewhere unknown in India. Veer Sooryavanshi, an officer of the Anti-Terrorism Squad, is given the task of preventing the attacks.
The plot seems very promising but the story offers nothing. The movie is just a celebration of superstar Akshay’s legacy. From kicks and punches to epic helicopter hanging scenes, the 54-year-old action legend proves he still has the moves he used to do in the ’90s. The biggest surprise is the recreation of Tip Tip Barsa Pani song. Whole theatre turns into stadiums during the song. The shouting, whistling and clapping inside the theatre reminds you of the glory of Indian mass cinema. The stunning Katrina Kaif dancing to the tune with Akshay Kumar is just outstanding. Akshay Kumar didn’t shy away to play his age which is not common in Indian Movies. So appreciation for that. Sooryavanshi establishes Rohit Shetty’s cop universe like Avengers did for the MCU. This movie brings the 3 super cops, Singham, Simmba and Sooryavanshi, together for the first time. Though they appear only in the last 30 minutes, it is still very enjoyable to witness how they team up against the villains.
It has all the formula for a mass movie but somehow as a movie it fails. It is the best example of lazy filmmaking. Making a movie about terrorism without any research is the main problem. Half cooked characters and out of place dialogues keep you disconnected. There is no character development for the lead actor either. Akshay gave intelligently written movies on the topic of terrorism like Holiday and Baby in the past. But here every dialogue related to national integrity and communal harmony hits hard on your face.You can’t get emotionally invested in a film where the story forgets its roots. This is a spoiled product packaged in an interesting way. It’s just a temporary guilty pleasure. This kind of film is doing nothing special for the industry.
Time has come for commercial cinema makers to invest in good script and dialogue writers. Producers like Rohit Shetty and Milap Zaveri consider themselves to be torch bearers of cinema at large. They want to become the likes of Manmohan Desai and Prakash Mehra. But they don’t want to work with Salim-Javed and Kader Khan. The characters of Simmba and Singham worked well for Rohit Shetty but the truth is that these are not original films. But Sooryavanshi is an original film. Its story is written by Rohit Shetty. I think this is where the film fails. For more than a decade, the Hindi film industry has worked hard to produce an original action masala film but has failed miserably. Dabang is an exception. The main reason is the writing. No building can survive for long when the base is weak. People have already seen Holiday, Baby, The Family Man and Special Ops. Telugu industry is at your doorstep and Hollywood movies are asking questions with every new release. You should address the problems in urgency.
If you really want to watch Sooryavanshi then go to single screen to enjoy more. We would not recommend watching it at multiplexes with high ticket prices. If the single screen is not good in your city then you can wait for the television premiere.