The After hrs review: Rowdy Rathore is 70 mm herogiri at its best

Film: Rowdy Rathore
Director: Prabhudheva
Cast: Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Nasser, Paresh Ganatra, Yashpal Sharma, Supreeth
Rating: ***

Rowdy Rathore is Prabhudheva’s second Bollywood film after Wanted, and like the Salman Khan starrer which was easily a mass entertainer, this one treads a similar path. So, it’s 70 mm herogiri at its best, further multiplied due to the South ka tadka that comes both from Prabhudheva helming it, but more so since the film itself is a remake of the South film Vikramarkudu. Here too in true-blue larger than life spirit, the hero takes on a dozen baddies and single handedly beats them to pulp, romances a pretty face and finally dances in between all the mindless maar dhaad of which there’s no dearth. Toplined with action, it has emotions, comedy, romance… in short, a hardcore masala mass entertainer and in that it hits bullseye. If you can bear to sit through some of the corny romance sequences between Shiva and whatever Sonakshi is called in the movie, then you are in for total timepass.

As for the story, it just about qualifies to justify all that the film entails. Shiva (Akshay) is a small time thief, who along with his partner in crime (Paresh Ganatra) cons people. It’s love at first sight when he sees Sonakshi and she too falls for his roguish charm. (How, is better left unexplained here). What’s enough is that she knows that he’s a thug. Okay with simply extracting a promise from him that he will give up his bad ways, she even gets her parents to meet him (By now we have stopped rolling our eyes!) But then Akshay chances upon a little girl who mistakes him for her father, topcop Vikram Rathore, who looks exactly like Shiva. (Akshay’s in a double role). The goons of a small town Devgarh who are out to kill Vikram too mistake Shiva to be the cop that their ‘bhai’ Baapji (Nasser) has sent them after and try to kill him. What follows is endless action and then some more.

Rowdy is Akshay’s return to action. And how! The actor takes charge of the film from the first scene and holds it tight all through. To put it simply, the film is to Akshay what Wanted was for Salman! Akshay is in top form and shows that he’s still the king when it comes to action. One of Akshay’s best so far, he surprisingly shows considerable restrain from going OTT in his performance despite the OTT nature of the film and easily excels in both the rakish and the serious twin roles. His scenes with the child actor are endearing too. Sonakshi is easy on the eyes. The baddie brigade is impressive and so are the supporting actors. Dialogues stick to the basic nature of the film and so does the music. There are no doubt several loopholes in the story that will be enough to dent the interest of an ‘intellectual cinema-lover’ (like it’s impossible to fathom a pretty looking cop (Gurdeep Kohli) in a village full of gundas without catching their eye even once) but Prabhudheva manages to take a ‘film lover’ skimming over the surface itself. He proves that Wanted was no flash in the pan and he has what it takes to be a masala churner! Overall, it’s a full on rowdy entertainer and a treat for all Akshay and action fans. So go for it!