Everyone has a gun in their hands. Everyone is shooting. Why? Nobody knows? And every time the wrong man is killed. That’s exactly what An Action Hero is all about. Director Anirudh Iyer’s film is bursting with action, not just the hero but even the villains, and contains several logic-defying moments. While most of them make you doubt your IQ, you tend to look past them and enjoy the action and funny unfolding of events on the screen. Interspersed with dark humour, An Action Hero has witty dialogue, one-liners and comedic punches that nail the perfect landing. Sometimes even better than the titular action hero in a fighting series.
Starring Ayushmann Khurrana as the action hero Maanav Khurana, the film shows him as this ‘star’ who just turned down a biopic of a gangster because he wants to stay away from ‘bhai log and underworld’. Ironically, he is filming in Haryana, and while enjoying his new ride after packing, he accidentally kills a Vicky Solanki, the younger brother of a notorious gangster and Jat neta Bhoora Solanki (Jaideep Ahlawat), who are now his brother wants to avenge. ‘murder’ and kill Maanav. What follows is a cat-and-mouse chase in the streets of UK (you see how the film moves from Haryana to Mumbai to London) with a bunch of trigger-happy men, all shooting aimlessly at each other to reach a climax. to achieve. that leaves you enchanted.
Iyer, who also wrote the story, was beyond our imagination if he didn’t make us question too much. For example, Maanav and Bhoora are transported to London in minutes, and you keep wondering if they didn’t need a visa or advance bookings? Does Maanav always carry his international passport? How is Bhoora even allowed to bring guns into London? In London, Ayushmann so effortlessly takes the London police for a ride and manages to escape.
There is a line in the movie: ‘Action hero ko gussa aata hai toh public ka paisa vasool hota hai’. Ayushmann pretty much stays true to this sentiment, and his conviction shows in the action sequences. Watching an actor step out of his comfort zone and try something new and challenging is always a sight to behold. Besides the chiseled new look, he also has a lot of nice one-liners to show off, for example ‘Ladna mera kaam hai, shaunk nahi’ and ‘action hero hoon, taskat ka istemaal aakhir mein karta hoon’. Ahlawat, with his Haryanvi dialect, is another masterclass in acting. Even in the scenes where he just stands there and doesn’t say a word, you can feel his menacing vibe.
An action hero packs a punch when it comes to face-off scenes between Ayushmann and Jaideep. Otherwise, it will largely remain your masala potboiler where hero and villain fight for reasons best known to them. The film, which I found mediocre in terms of content, compensates for this with a lot of humor through somewhat lighter exchange of dialogues between the enemies, which makes this action thriller somewhat funny. Imagine there’s a scene where Bhoora sits on top of Maanav, points a gun at his head and gives him some kind of lecture on ‘how audiences make stars, so when they say actors should sing, dance or even pose for a photo’. Neeraj Yadav’s screenplay is captivating and gives you an adrenaline rush in those well-choreographed fight scenes. Kaushal Shah’s cinematography also gets all the credit for capturing the countryside so beautifully and I liked how it’s effortlessly woven into the screenplay.
One aspect where the movie went a bit overboard, though I’m not complaining, is the way it showed TRP hungry news anchors and TV anchors with their high pitched voices calling out Bollywood. Using the popular hashtag #BoycottBollywood comes across as a clever way to make a subtle joke about the current scenario in the entertainment industry. One of the anchors who so seamlessly mimicked a popular voice on news channels that started his own battle with Bollywood that actually made him laugh.
Speaking of laughs, don’t miss the pleasantly surprising cameo of an OG action hero who is hilarious and so spontaneous. And of course, special dance sequences from Malaika Arora and Nora Fatehi that may not add much to the story, but definitely up the glamorous quotient.
Check out An Action Hero for some brash and raucous action, and if you like cat and mouse chase, you’d find this crazy ride just as amusing.
