Gabbar never arrives

When Akshay Kumar plays a crusader against corruption, don’t we know what to expect? So why, pray why, do we keep our hopes high?

 As a producer of Gabbar is Back, veteran director Sanjay Leela Bhansali must be laughing away to glory now. He knows that no matter what critics say, this Gabbar is going to yield him fair returns, because it will work with the ‘masses,’ a term concocted by the so-called intellectuals.

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 Gabbar is Back is an unapologetic ‘mass’ film. If a hero can propose in the midst of a ‘saffron’ procession (where did the neutral flag colours in popular cinema go?) and if he can really break into a song in the midst of his wedding rites, well, he can do anything. And that is exactly what Gabbar alias Professor Aditya (Akshay Kumar) does.

 This adaptation of a 20-year-dated Tamil movie called Ramanna has everything we have seen before – troubled hero, all-too-powerful businessman villain, useless police force, a do-gooder heroine, another one who will be killed, and hundreds of extra artists who have to look on in awe at the hero or be bashed up by him.

 This formula works due to star power, a few twists to the tale, some good punch-lines and swift execution. When it comes to Gabbar is Back, the star-power works okay, there are no twists and the execution is not so racy. There are no punch lines; instead there are some really bad dialogues.

 So we have a villain who calls himself a brand, a hero who says he is a bigger brand, and the two arguing over who is the bigger one. Seriously? Is this some college kids’ MBA project?

 Gabbar never really connects with audiences or moves to the next level in vigilante-genre because everything is predictable. Scenes unfold with such clock-work precision that you can get up, take a break, return and continue watching without missing anything of essence. 

> This movie could have been named ‘Aditya is Here’ and would have made no difference. After all, it is about Aditya, who mourns his family’s loss, rallies students and the honest, and takes on the corrupt system until he metes out his own personal agenda of vengeance against the big-brand villain Patil (Suman).

 Interesting there is a sub-plot of a constable (Sunil Grover in top form) who unlike his good-for-nothing superiors could have easily nabbed Gabbar. But it takes a CBI officer (an extremely effective Jaideep Ahlawat) to recognise the driver-constable’s skills.

 What could have been a good cat-and-mouse game between the CBI and Gabbar becomes a wasted opportunity because all that the powerful CBI officer keeps asking is: ‘Who is Gabbar? Who is Gabbar?’ His lack of understanding - even if we believe in whatever is happening on-screen - is appalling.

 Riding entirely on the star-power of Akshay, who does a decent job as best as he can, Gabbar is Back ends up as another of those remakes that makes critics cringe but could gain catcalls and whistles from its target audience. If you expect anything more, let us just say that the real Gabbar’s name is taken in vain.

 By the way, the film has Shruti Haasan and Kareena Kapoor too. You wouldn’t have missed them in the melee, anyway.

Gabbar is Back - Now playing at theatres in the UAE

Starring: Akshay Kumar, Shruti Haasan, Suman

Director: Krish