STORY
After annoying a strongman Vicky during the film shooting, the popular action film star Maanav accidentally kills him when he chases Maanav. In fear of getting caught, Maanav runs away to his home in the UK but he is unaware that Vicky’s brother Bhoora is coming to take revenge.
REVIEW
The plot line indicates that I was up for a cat-and-mouse chase and a survival action thriller. An interesting idea was pitched for a typical Ayushmann Khurrana pandemic. The first 50 minutes were the best part of the film. But the entire comical setup of a thoughtful plot devalued after that, because Maanav faces off Bhoora too early.
My opinion about the continuity of such plot is that “An Action Hero” must have been written in a way that Bhoora would make efforts searching for his head and Maanav running from him and the local police throughout the film. That would have built the intensity and their eventual face-off had captivated more interest and undivided attention. But since the writer decided to let Bhoora meet Maanav too early in the film, the question mark over Maanav’s survival become vital. Instead of killing off the character, knowing the fact naturally how furious a brother will be for the deceased, Bhoora comes to his face and wishes to go no-holds-barred. Brother, you came all over from India to Portsmouth just to fight and then kill him? Of course, it is unrealistic and the main purpose of the plot gets killed before Maanav due to such premature encounter.
There is no doubt that the action choreography, besides a couple of scenes, were above-average because Maanav is action master so performing stunts and fighting against all odds was natural. But in a given scenario, I felt it was pretty unnatural for a film star to go Die-Hard or Mission Impossible against firing bullets and going one-on-one against the trained fighters of crime.
The film’s hype is centered around two extremely different actors in Ayushmann Khurrana and Jaideep Ahlawat. But due to bad screenplay and execution, and much effort put on a comedy unsuccessfully transforming into a black comedy, Maanav-Bhoora chemistry fell flat. With an introduction of a don in the second half that made Maanav and Bhoora became tag-team, the film completely slipped from its purpose and went far from logic and reality.
CLOSING REMARKS
Some of you may criticize me finding logic in a mainstream Bollywood film. But try to understand my point. In 2015, a similar story in this very industry blended with realism and black comedy ran a full life circle due to excellent execution. And that was Badlapur. I do not demand for another Badlapur. I opine that the quality of writing a screenplay and a fitting execution could have done justice with the plot. Sadly, that is not the case.
RATING 2/10
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Sami Naik | Film Critic 