”James Bond movies are full of senseless action!”
--Sunny Deol, on an interview with The Times of India
When I suggested to my friend about seeing “The Hero – Love Story of a Spy” (yeah…love, spy, intriguing!) yesterday he almost got exasperated and remarked –“Kyon mere jaan ke peche padha hain? Aur tu Sunny Deol Ki movie dekhna chahta hain? Of all tu?” I had to justify somehow! I cajoled him saying that I already knew what kind of movies Sunny Deol movies turn out to be, and yet in spite of all that I was willing to take the risk and see the movie. My friend needed a lot of cajoling, plus a paid for ice cream to see the movie ( he said it was his right to have one since he was the one who was going to endure the movie!). My friend made one last attempt to remind me before we took that tickets that the movie was directed by the maker of the all time great mega block buster disaster Gadar. He failed, because I coolly mentioned –“Isiliye tho, I want to see kitna achcha movie hain yeh!”. Finally a hopeful me and a disgruntled friend entered the movie theatre.
I have often wondered what would happen if some director decided to remake James Bond in Hindi. How would he carry the story? How would he direct the story? And put in songs as well? All my questions were answered at the end of the movie – I felt relieved that I didn’t chose direction as my profession. The Hero is almost what my hackneyed imagination would be of a take off on James Bond. I am glad, that I am spared of the ridicule! Let Anil Sharma get the flak! Anyhow coming to the movie – The movie begins pretty well, turns interesting, turns chaotic, turns illogical, and ends in total senselessness.
The Hero for whatever his name his…ah I remember...Ajay Chakravarthy happens to be a great Spy in the RAW department. He is intelligent, caring, honest, loving, musician, breaks into a song anytime you please, play saxophone and piano like a professional, and of course – Protects the country! Kyon Hero! Kya Samjhe tum?! Anyhow after foiling an already hackneyed plot of the ISI, the credits roll a-la James Bond style…how I wish there were some females dancing around the credits instead of James Bond…oops…Hero singing a song! Anyhow, Ajay now as an army captain has come to a village to gather information across the border and protect his country. There he meets Reshma whom he of course falls in love with – what did u expect? Remember, its love story…of a spy(?). Anyhow, he trains Reshma and sends her across the border into enemy territory to gather information against ISI activities. The ISI head is planning a Jihad with a Nuclear Bomb! Whoa!!! And the idea is to get all the raw materials and build nuclear bomb and simply throw it across!! So easy really – ( I wonder why Anil Sharma didn’t contact Bush when he wrote the script). But the build up to this part is interesting and holds promise.
Any how, some songs later on pyar mohobbat , watan se wafai drama, Reshma is caught. It seems at this point Sunny intervened during the scripting stages of the film and demanded his fair share of slam by the dozen act. And Lo! We are yet again treated to the Hero shooting almost an army of ISI agents at one go with just 2 revolvers…I wonder what so many people were doing around him. Anyhow, the movie starts going towards chaos at this point. Lovers declare their love, are united, and then all of a sudden a Blast from heaven rips an entire party and of course with it Reshma into waters of the rivers. Of course, batane ki zarurat nahi hain, she is presumed dead!! Nahi, yeh bhi batane ki zaroorat nahi hain ke she survives!!! Kya who apni yaadgash kho baith thee hain? Caught you… Nahi Nahi…she doesn’t! she flows in the baho mein of a super rich Pakistani who decides to treat her! She has paralysis…what tragedy and chaos really! Meanwhile, the ISI chief and his bunch of jokers have gone to Canada to build the bomb!! The super Pakistani decides better not to tell Paki soldiers about the Indian girl he has kept for treatment…however now the movie gets illogical! Also, RAW decides to send Ajay as an agent to where else – Canada!
The super Pakistani manages to get Reshma fly Paki Airways to guess what? Amrika? Japan? Nahi yaar – Canada of course!!! Now how he does that is something which I have been wondering…she was an Indian, he doesn’t want people to know she is Indian…err…Pakistan airways are free for all airways? Immigration check anyone? Passport? Now – of course she is treated by a kind doctor who is the second Heroine played by Priyanka Chopra, who happens to be daughter of the cancer research center owner who is a Pakistani who is also involved with ISI chief to build the bomb!!! WHOA…total masti I remarked to my friend. Now of course what does the Hero do – Pataofy the second Heroine…the way to the nuclear bomb is through is a woman’s heart!!
Total senselessness creeps into this already chaotic and illogical movie. Now, the ISI chief meet the Hero who is himself posing as an Pakistani Nuclear scientist! Of course Sunny’s attempts at bad makeup and disguises in the movie are met by even worse non-recognition by all the apparent dumb-ass ISI heads! I didn’t know that Pakistanis had such dumb asses in ISI. So the Hero wants to find the what they are doing, meet his first love, manage the second one and save the country – save him first! Luckily all the issues are dealt with in one elongated scene…where each one comes to know of each one ‘s secret…be it love, spy, plans and blah blah. The director’s apparent love for Trains is again evident (remember the steam engine scene in Gadar anyone?!)…the movie heads towards an absolute chaotic climax again in a train…the ISI actually plans to transport a bomb using local subway!!!!
To the performances, well, Sunny remarkably manages to give in a decent performance. Why he gets to shout and scream – but Jatt paaji seems to have tired himself. There are right doses of anti-paki dialogues to keep viewers clapping…why I enjoyed it too! The action scenes are comic; How would you like to see a mean RAW chief looking a fatso with a paunch jumping all over mountains, cliffs, trains, buildings? The direction begins well, and exponentially goes down as the time of the movie goes up linearly. Priyanka chopra looks good, but acts okay. Preity is the best part of the movie – she acts well and is able to do full justice to the role she got. The extra characters of the ISI and the bunch of idiots seem straight out of chacha chaudary’s villains. Special effects in some parts are good. Also its appreciable that the process of nuclear bomb making has been given good thought…I would have expected it to get ready in 1 day in Sunny Deol’s movies…Hopefully that angle is handled well.
Finally my take on the movie – its definitely one of Sunny Deol’s better movies in recent times. After enduring Gadar, Zor, Ziddi, and half of Karz…this is definitely a good movie (when compared to them). The movie is too long, and spends too much time on love! Again, if you are ready to forgive the senselessness of the whole enterprise, you wouldn’t mind watching it once…Just once.
’’It is white.’’
--George W. Bush, asked by a child in Britain what the White House was like, July 19, 2001