Review: 'Khiladi 786' – Mindless comedy, mindless action

Film: Khiladi 786
Director: Ashish R Mohan
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Asin Thottumkal, Mithun Chakraborty, Raj Babbar, Himesh Reshammiya
Rating: **

If only the filmmakers understand that we’ve had too much of the clichéd cop image. First Dabangg, then Singham, then Rowdy Rathore and now Khiladi 786. And wait, there’s more…it’s Dabangg 2 in a few weeks from now. Khiladi 786 has all the conventional elements that a typical masala film has – a bad cop, a runaway bride, a lachar goon, songs after every few minutes…Yet, it fails to create an impact. Why so? Let’s find out.

Bahattar [72] Singh (Akshay Kumar) is a local hooligan who helps the cops in Punjab police catch smuggled goods. His entire family, including Sattar [70] Singh (Raj Babbar), Ekhattar [71] Singh (Mukesh Rishi) have been doing the same work even as they run an akhada (wrestling arena) in their backyard. Due to their bad deeds, no girl in India is ready to get married into their family.

(Akshay’s mother is a Canadian, grandmother a South African and aunt a Chinese lady.) In another setting, Tatya Tukaram [TT] Tendulkar (Mithun Chakraborty) is a famous gangster whose sister Indu (Asin) refuses to marry the few decent boys who agree to get married to her. Mansukh (Himesh Reshammiya), who is a match-maker by profession, tries to arrange the marriage of Bahattar and Indu. A whole lot of lies and innumerable confusing twists later, the film manages to come to an end.

Akshay is a treat for all his fans. From action to romance, from breaking bones to dancing, he goes all out for this film. Yet, he fails to put up a convincing show, which I’m quite sure was not his fault. Asin looks stunning. From her newly-toned figure to her trendy styling and stunning make-up, the woman is a sight for sore eyes. Unfortunately, that’s all that you see of her in the film – a dolled-up beauty with hardly any role in the film. Mithun is undoubtedly brilliant. Himesh is tolerable in the first half, but by the time the movie finishes, you wonder why he was given so much screen presence when there were quite a few other characters to fill that space. The other characters including Babbar, Rishi, Gurpreet Ghuggi do justice.

The story by Himmesh Reshammiya is a complex mix of innumerable films and it would be best if you don’t even judge it. Indeed, I’d like to believe he never intended to write a logical story or a telling tale.

Direction is another field that the film lacks. While there is enough action in the beginning and in the end, the director seems to have gotten lost in the middle, where he resorts to mindless comedy and not-so-funny jokes. From flying cars to screeching brakes, from broken sets to airborne men…it’s very obvious where Ashish R Mohan gets his training from. What one expected was for him to rise above the Golmaal series and present a good action comedy. Unfortunately, he fails to do so. Then again, it was his first film, so we can expect something better in future.

While the cinematography does justice to the director’s thought process, the dialogues are a huge let-down. While the first half manages to bring out quite a few laughs and sticks to the genre of light-hearted comedy, the second half goes overboard and tries too hard to tickle your funny bone, so hard that you end up getting irritated with the number of characters and their cheesy dialogues. A few lines are repeated way too many times in the film.

 

Spoiler alert: There is a pleasant surprise in the end. Watch out for that rib-tickling twist.

The music of the film is nothing special. Some songs are catchy, but the only good thing about them are the beats. My favourite is Balma which stars Claudia Ciesla.

With songs after songs, focus on lead actor and far-fetched action sequences, the film tries too hard to get into the same genre as Salman Khan's films, but fails to do so. 

 

If you are one of those who tries to make sense out of every movie, mind you, this is definitely not your kind of a film. The movie can only be fun if you leave your brains at home. Indeed if you're into mindless comic movies, you're in for a hilarious ride. If you watch it, you might land up having a little fun, if you don’t, you haven't missed much in life.