A pitfall while deciding which movies to watch is that u tend to assume a lot and in the process become opinionated. It is this weakness that resulted in my missing quite a few great movies as I made them up to be quite loathsome and un-watch able instinctively either by the name, cast, theme, a few stray songs/dialogs/or a column of some bored-with-life critic. So I have decided to write reviews based on my tastes and likes and what I really expect out of a movie than gneralise; most critics (mistakenly ) have a firm belief in the sanctity and exaltedness of their own tastes and anything that does not match up to these tastes is not worth it. So here’s is an explicit review…..
What do u get when u have twostars (super? I am not sure as I do not see many Hindi movies), all from the lineage of one super star of the yester years, you get entertainment of quality family value suiting a wide variety of tastes that exist in families of today (a visit to a restaurant is a case in point). I went for the cast for D’s old times sake and am not disappointed with the result as I had prepared myself for the worst (my one time favourite D has been doing only B grade movies since the time I saw his last movie Main Inteqaam Loongaa in 1982 ; ....see it also if u haven’t). A family movie had to have a theme and it is typically D to choose a macho one in keeping with his true blue Punjabi spirit while slipping his lamenting message of why we have done so poorly in the sports arena (except cricket and tennis/golf to some extent) specifically Olympics.
The story line is fairly convincing and D has carried out the role as expected, as you get sympathizing with him while watching and this is my measure of a successful movie one that gets u involved and start thinking of their circumstances and commence judging their characters actions and dialogues. Why boxing? which many Indian (fe)males abhor (I remember in the military naval academy that a small minority of gentlemen officer cadets used any ploy to get out of the compulsory boxing bouts, some even ran out of the academy and these are the top of the line machos the country produces ).
I think I have an answer, as the standard family issues relating to the Indian way of life have been tried and tested many times over so the Deols came up with some thing new and different as they are sporting personalities and what better sport to showcase individual qualities of strength, stamina, skill, killer instinct, literally fighting spirit(and D is very fond of this sport as his last movie I mentioned earlier above was based on the Rocky classics) . What is repulsive to the peaceful and Gandhian spirit ed Indian is blood and gore and this the viewer is spared to a large extent (remember it is aimed at family audience ). So do not get put off by the boxing angle or the remembered glimpses of WWF while flicking channels.
The characters/roles of ladies are a little undervalued to the main theme but understandably so and what is there is only because ….. remember it is a family movie. What I am thankful is that there is no excessive emotionalizing and carrying the caring and sharing thing a bit too far, well we do have to put up with a fair share of tears and sniffing just short of the point of irritation. Well while D and Sunny looked terrific in their pugilist outfits bobby could have done more trimming/toning/building up of his bare parts. Also the coverage of the championship rounds was too hurried as was the short time of one month to become a champ, but then these are too minor issues as bigger ones have been forgiven by our large hearted audiences.
The family values of sacrifice and support are brought out well along with the contradictory idiosyncrasies of our-elders viz; dads and moms-are-always-right and have to be respected at any cost (good for today’s cartoon-burger- computer games-kids). The songs are average but cinematography is excellent. Final verdict: If you are a sporting family then this movie is must see, if not then just go watch the father and sons gel-well together and for doling out a decent fare.