New Delhi:
Even knives and guns can’t force me to claim Rocky Handsome as one of the finest action thriller of Bollywood. With Nishikant Kamat as director, who has movies like Force and Drishyam tagged to him, all expectations fall flat as the film ends up being ultra-action drama with low or rather no substance.
Rocky Handsome is a remake of 2010 Korean film The Man From Nowhere and also Nishikant Kamat’s attempt to do a ‘Bourne’; but in an attempt to play to the gallery he kills too many men and the film.
John Abraham is a rugged killing machine – this gets justifies just from his looks, the only problem comes when he starts behaving like a typical Bollywood hero. Wait! This is a Bollywood movie and he has a reason to make an escape. Mr Abraham has always been criticized more because of his similar expression in past dramas. This is the film where that could have come in really handy but instead of cashing on that, director tries vibrancy and chose to make him cry, get emotional and super angry man in handsome attire.
The film tries to explain too many things in first half and while settling them in a lot of time gets wasted, resulting in dragging the film. We have a protagonist living dual life, desperate to save life of an eight-year-old girl, a drug cartel, an illegal organ-harvesting gang and even a child trafficking mafia added to the mix.
Like Ajay Devgn’s Drishyam, Rocky Handsome could have also been an edge-of-the-seat action thriller if the narrative had been focused on one baddie gang and the protagonists’ action against them.
Taking a step forward from bullets and fight sequences from Force, Nishikant has added Korean flavours with knives. To make the film explicitly gruesome even axes and hammers have been put to work. You are never spared of the graphical details, which somewhere shows director’s love for bloodlust.
Too many villains contradict authenticity of one real bad antagonist, and this is where audiences have to struggle hard to settle their minds. To create a space for all, too many item songs have been used with toppings live cleavage show, hips and wild hippies.
Shruti Haasan finds very little space to explain her existence while Baby Diya Chalwad nails the character with her cute smile. Bajrangi Bhaijaan girl definitely have a competition now.
If the focus had been on just the relevant parts to narrate the story, Rocky Handsome could definitely have been a must watch thriller. It appeared like Nishikant had substance of three movies but to save funds and time, he mixed all of it to create one film.
Final Verdict: The only attraction in the movie is John Abraham’s body and also his new style of fighting. Rest nothing is special about Rocky Handsome. Watch it at your own risk.
