Starring: Akshay Kumar, Aditi Rao Hydari, Mithun Chakraborty
Director: Anthony D'Souza
Producer: Ashwin Varde
Banner: Viacom 18 Movies
Music: Meet Bros Anjjan,Yo Yo Honey Singh,P.A.Deepak
The second-half of this breakneck-speed,
blues-chaser of a movie opens with a long chase sequence through the
narrow gallis of a dusty small-town in North India where we last saw
Akshay Kumar having a ball in "Rowdy Rathod" and "Khiladi 786".
Somehow in those films, Akshay ended up
having more fun that we did. This time, our enjoyment-quotient matches
Akshay's step-by-step, scene-by-scene, frame-by-frame chuckle for
chuckle.
"Boss" is as much fun to watch as it
must have been to shoot. Almost every sequence is an 'item'. And for
once the word 'item' is not a gaali.
Director Anthony D'Souza who failed so
miserably in shooting an undersea adventure thriller in "Blue", here
rises out of the deep to deliver a full-blast rabble-rouser that
verifies what Vidya Balan recently said about the movies - "They are all
about three things....entertainment, entertainment, entertainment".
To that we can add another golden rule
of honest mainstream filmmaking: kinetic energy. Every moment in "Boss"
is a celebration of cinematic conventions derived from decades of
Bollywood entertainment.
Family-ties torn asunder by villainous
machinations, brothers growing up with different values, and a parent
who frowns at the outlawed son's ill-gotten wealth power.
Damn, Mithun Chakraborty as Akshay's
disapproving father could be Nirupa Roy in "Deewaar". But I doubt
Amitabh Bachchan's character would see the humour in the violence the
way Akshay does. He stops a bone-breaking binge for a titter and then
goes right back to thrashing his enemies.
Then there is the deliciously subverted
morality of la-la-land. A law-maker who breaks every law of the land,
and an anti-social hero who could have ended up being boringly
messianic. But just as the character seems to take itself too seriously,
Akshay Kumar brings him back a thumping thud, the kind that creates a
crater in the ground.
Akshay, God bless his innate sense of
joie de vivre underlined by a distant demeanour of unspoken tragedy that
shows up in a welter of wistfulness, imparts to the old-as-the-hills
heroism, a sense of freshly-found humour.
A sense of sameness had crept into
Akshay's recent serio-comic outings. But in "Boss", he bites succinctly
into his juicy role, creating a kind of precarious balance into a part
that blessedly careens more towards self-parody than self-glorification.
And thank God for a formidable
adversary! That brilliant actor Ronit Roy as Akshay's main opponent - a
khaki-clad brute named Ayushman Thakur, brings to his role a chilling
propensity to turn the colour khaki into a black display of uniformed
anarchy.
Ronit's introductory sequence where he ritualistically murders a cluster of criminals sets the tone for d'Souza's narration.
Shiv Pandit as Akshay's sibling displays
a sincere screen presence. This newcomer's best sequence has Akshay
comment, "That's the problem with you newcomers. You need to be shown
how to do everything."
Well, well.
Sonakshi Sinha looking like a full-on
heroine, shows up twice, once jiving to a zingy Yo Ho Honey Singh number
and finally at the end to pay Sridevi an unexpected compliment.
Sonakshi has no problem fitting
comfortably in the screenplay.This is the kind of film that easily
absorbs awkward moments into the larger picture. Wisely, this athletic
spindly remake of the Malyalam blockbuster "Pokkiri Raja" doesn't
blindly borrow scenes from the original.
Taking the original material, writer
Sajid-Farhad have completely reconstructed the material bringing a sense
of surging excitement and great fun to the proceedings. The dialogues
are bombastic but not repeatedly so.
The elaborate action sequences devised
and executed by Anal Arasu are the backbone of the robust narration.
Every action sequence is done with virile innovative enthusiasm,
thrilling and rugged but never oblivious to the need to lend laughter to
the bloodshed.
Hence when Akshay fights a bunch of
boorish goons in the first of the many cleverly-executed stunt
sequences, out come huge music speakers and three chorus dancers to lend
his fisticuffs a rhythmic accompaniment.
We always knew music was never very far
off from the soul of Hindi cinema. Boss shows us how and why. Director
d'Souza shows a remarkable flair for blending burlesque with violence.
Many of the action sequences are over-the-top and yet saved in the nick
of time by Akshay's comic timing from toppling over into an over-done
kitschy mess.
The miracle of creating a masala film
that doesn't take itself too serious or the audience too lightly is here
achieved with a credible quotient of conviviality and a commitment to
preserving the momentum of the narration.
Apart from a couple of loosely-designed
scenes (one sequence has the formidable Danny Denzongpa standing around
doing nothing, something that this actor is not comfortable doing) and
some sidekick characters who are annoyingly intrusive, I found myself
completely entertained by the film's light-weight tone.
This is a fast-paced, zany, full-on
masala fare. There is a tempting swagger to Akshay's performance matched
by the narration's tidal tempo. Irresistible energy and endearing gusto
underline the show's voracious appetite for a comic kill.
Ekdum fit hai, Boss!