It is incredible to see that an actor in his sixties can command such a magnetic appeal on the screen, as Amitabh Bachchan does. He might not be in the best of health nowadays but he certainly is the backbone of Ek Ajnabee.
Amitabh Bachchan who makes this movie watchable, who breathes life and fire into it. His screen presence, his acting and his sheer charm, dims the movie’s downpoints. The story of ‘Ek Ajnabee’ is inspired (lifted ???) from the Hollywood thriller ‘Man on Fire’ with Denzel Washington have worked his brooding underplayed charm in the movie.
The Big B is Suryaveer Singh, a retired army colonel. He is a dark mooded and surly man with a penchant for hitting the bottle. The source of his sorrow is that during his service in the Army, he accidentally shot dead two children during a military operation in Kashmir.
Suryaveer Singh is given the job of playing bodyguard to a 9 year old millionaire’s daughter, Anamika, by Shekhar (Arjun Rampal)who is the owner of a security firm. Anamika.
The innocence of the little girl mellows him and brings moments of happiness into sorry life of Suryaveer Singh.
When the Anamika, Suryaveer’s silence is like the silence before the fury of a gathering storm. He vows to avenge and starts hunting down the kidnappers. This is one of the better parts of the film with all the menacing stillness of “Hum”
The movie is very slick and stylish. There are no unnecessary songs at bay – just 2 songs. The speed with which the story unfolds is quite good – edge of the seat stuff sometimes.
The 1st half – mainly interactions bwtween Suryaveer Singh and Anamika are quite touching.
After the interval, the movie slows down a bit compared to the 1st half. Arjun Rampal, Lara Dutta etc. do their jobs and no more. All in all it is mota-moti paisa vasool.