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Monday, October 7, 2024
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BOLLYWOOD ACTION REPLAYY
EDITOR'S PICK
Rating: **
Hollywood and Bollywood, despite similarities in their names, hardly have
anything in common. Except that the latter often borrows concepts from its older
cousin. Yet, it manages to make something different from the original.
"Action Replayy" is an example of that.
When proposed to, Bunty (Aditya Roy Kapoor) refuses to marry his girlfriend
because he has seen his parents Kishan (Akshay Kumar) and Mala (Aishwarya Rai)
fight since he was born. Even on their 35th marriage anniversary, they fight as
if they were sworn enemies. A determined Bunty steals a ride on a time machine
invented by his girlfriend`s grandfather to go back in time to make it all
right.
Doing this will be tougher than he had imagined as he finds his parents very
different from what they are today. Parenting ones parents, Bunty would realise,
is the toughest job in the whole wide world.
The basic premise isn`t new. Even before "Back To The Future" made it
famous, travelling to the past to correct one`s present was staple food of
science fictions. It is, after all, the ultimate human fantasy.
What is new is how "Action Replayy" lays bare the difference between
two of the biggest commercial filmmaking centres of the world, Hollywood and
Bollywood. While in "Back To The Future" the stress is on science
fiction and survival of the time traveller, here it is on human relations and
the various emotions associated with it.
Also the paper thin, cliched villains of the film shows that Bollywood is still
in a time-wrap. But "Action Replayy" can perhaps afford to, it being a
time-wrap story and all.
Lot of efforts have been made to get the sets right, and surprisingly it often
works. Vignettes of ancient advertisements, painstakingly made a part of the set
by the filmmakers, make it a thrill to watch, especially for those from that
era.
The costumes, however, try too hard to be retro. If you watch films of those
period, they were not so flowery and jazzy as in this film. However, given the
lighter vein in which the film is made, it is perhaps justified.
Aishwarya and Akshay are as good as Bollywood can get, which isn`t much.
Pritam`s music is average and only when we do an action replay from the high
plinth of the future, will we come to know the corners of the world he has
plagiarised from.
Few spoofs are hilarious, especially the one on the Gujarati band led by Mahesh
Kumar whose brother can sing in two voices. The one where the son is desperately
trying to make his retro father understand the concept of sex and uses the
typical Hindi film analogy of two flowers meeting is a laugh-riot.
Despite this the film misses many opportunities for gags that can easily be part
of a time travel film. Just the inclusion of names common today like Obama,
Mallika Sherawat, Saif Ali Khan etc., does not necessarily make it humorous.
"Action Replayy" despite its best intentions and few successes, fails
in many others. Perhaps it will take someone else to say action-reply and better
the present for Bollywood.
Bunty loves his girlfriend Tanya but runs a mile whenever she mentions marriage. His phobia with matrimony stems from his parents Kishen and Mala’s acrimonious marriage.
But now Bunty is in a fix. Tanya’s grandfather, Professor Anthony Gonsalves, as given him an ultimatum – get married to Tanya or stop seeing her. Bunty knows that unless he does something fast, his dreams of living happily ever after with Tanya will bite the dust.
As Bunty’s surprise party for his parents 35th wedding anniversary deteriorates into yet another explosive fight between Kishen and Mala; he decides to turn back the clock and rewrite Kishen and Mala’s destiny and alter their disastrous arranged marriage into a romantic affair of the hearts.
And how does he do that? By stealing the professor’s time machine to travel back in time! To a time when Kishen and Mala were not married…To a time when Kishen’s father Rai Bahadur and Mala’s mother, Boli Devi were sworn enemies…To a time when his father Kishen was certified nerd, bullied merciless by his father…To a time when his tomboyish mother couldn’t stand the sight of his father and took great pleasure in ragging him silly…
Bunty has his work cut out for him. He has to transform his father from a wimp into an eligible bachelor and his mother from a tomboy into the epitome of feminine grace. Then he has to attempt an impossible task – make them fall in love with each other.
And finally – he has to make his grandparents agree to their love marriage! Because until and unless he does this, his own love story with Tanya will never have a happy ending…
