Family is arguably Raj Kumar Santoshis worst movie till date. After the taut and crisp Khakee, I had high expectations from this movie. But it disapoints, and how!
Story in brief : Akshay Kumar (Shekhar Bhatia) is a restaurant owner. Aryamaan is his younger brother who is always getting himself into trouble leaving Akshay Kumar to bail him out. He meets Bhoomika Chawla at his restaurant and after a couple of song and dance sequences, they fall in love and marry.
Bacchan is a mafia Don, staying in Bangkok. His errant son, Sushant Singh in a fit of anger, clobbers a prominent businessman’s son on the head, injuring him. Sushant Singh takes flight to Bangkok, safe from the Mumbai police. When the businessman’s efforts to extradict him fail , he hires the help of Kader Khan , Bacchans old enemy and an asassination attempt on Bacchan and Sushant Singh is made on Bangkok.This is a failure and now Bachhan, seeking revenge, comes to Mumbai.
In a freak incident , as Bachhan is trying to shoot at Kader Khans nephew , his bullet finds Akshay Kumar who succumbs on the spot.
How Aryamaan comes to terms with his brothers death and what steps he takes to avenge it forms the rest of the story......
Family seems to have been directed in a hurry. The charahters are introduced too abruptly. None of the scenes leave any impact. The dialogues are weak, the background music is not powerful enough.
In Sarkar, Bachhan managed to convey his power just with a mere glance but here, he comes across as an ordinary person wearing extraordinary suits..
Santoshi manages to confuse the audience.... the focus of the scipt teeters between the revenge plot and the intricacies of Bachhans own family. In fact the climax is more to do with the Sushant Singh-Bachhan relationship than revenging Akshay Kumars death.
Post interval the movie drags. Thankfully, all the songs are done and dusted with in the first half itself.
Performances:
Amitabh Bachhan : One of his also-ran performances, has done nothing special or different (other than slightly twitching his lower lip while delivering an intense line).
Akshay Kumar: Has a brief role, but his comic timing draws a few laughs from the audience. Pity he doesnt share screen time with Bachhan.
Aryamaan: Has a wooden debut, failing to have any impact whatsoever. He has a limited range of expressions and his future in the industry can be said to be fraught with peril.
Sushant Singh : Is fairly average, showing himself ever reliable to deliver , if not an exciting performance, but a steady one.
Bhoomika Chawla : Looks uncomfortable on screen rapping with Akshay Kumar.
Family is a directors movie and the blame can be put fairly on the shoulders of Mr. Santoshi. Just another example that even a top notch director can deliver complete turkey after a good movie and that the audience cannot be taken for granted.
Dont watch Family with your family. Spare them the headache.