Himmatwala
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tamannaah, Mahesh Manjrekar, Paresh Rawal
Direction: Sajid Khan
Rating: **
The problem with Sajid Khan’s ‘Himmatwala’ is the director can’t
make-up his mind whether he wants to make a spoof or whether he wants to
recreate the nostalgia of the 1980s. The film thus hangs in a
precarious balance vacillating between the two extremes.
Ravi (Ajay Devgn) is a street fighter who discovers that his widowed
mother and sister are in dire straits in his native village. He returns
to Ramnagar to avenge the death of his father and seek justice for the
people of his village. Sher Singh’s (Mahesh Manjrekar) daughter is
equally spoiled and walks around the village in very small dresses,
brandishing a whip. The spoilt brat soon falls for Himmatwala Ravi and
is then swishing around in salwar-kameez plotting her father’s downfall.
A very typical Bollywood revenge saga like this one in the hands of a
better director could have become a laughter riot. Sajid Khan however,
hopelessly grapples with the treatment finally completely losing track
by the climax. The dialogue-baazi quite often doesn’t have the desired
effect, the action sequences look very Rohit Shetty style and the humour
falls flat quite often. Even Ajay realizes that his jokes are not that
funny and even mentions it more than once in the film.
What works for the film is basically Ajay who seems completely
convinced with the flimsy script. It’s as if his presence is enough to
make the film a Rs 100 crore enterprise. Tamannaah looks good and shows
enough flawless skin in the ‘Tathaiya Tathaiya’ and ‘Taki Taki’ song, to
ensure they will become the most popular songs of the year.
Why we start the film with the ‘Thank God It’s Friday’ song or why we
suddenly throw in a totally redundant item song, is completely beyond
comprehension. Farah had very deftly handled the rebirth saga and turned
it on its head in ‘Om Shanti Om’ to deliver a complete entertainer,
unfortunately Sajid completely fails to do the same.
