'An Action Hero' movie review: Retraction of a hero

FilmAn Action HeroDirector Anirudh IyerCast Ayushmann Khurrana Jaideep AhlawatRating 25Trust actor Ayushmann Khurrana mdash a star from another galaxy within Bollywood mdash to sign up for a proper lsquoaction filmrsquo while wholly subverting the genre itself Meaning the film is about an action hero in real life This puts everything you watch then within the realms of realism as well And that can be an issue But wersquoll get into that in a bitIn terms of premise and for the most part the plotwriting that follows mdash An Action Hero is a genuinely clever picture by writer firsttime director Anirudh IyerAlso in terms of how the story flows mdash itrsquos not told it unravels as it should Yoursquore taken places Up until yoursquore with the filmmakers yoursquore in for a decent rideIt opens with Khurranarsquos character holed up in a police detention room in London wherein two RAW agents have dropped in to casually interrogate himThe story he narrates which is the film in flashback from thereon is about a Bollywood superstar that is himself And the incalculable shenanigans that surround such a celebrity mdash sometimes distracting from his job which is simply to perform between action and cutThe first thing that struck me about An Action Hero though is how often wersquove begun to watch movies that are about movies itself This could be because the last Hindi thriller I caught on OTT was Monica O My Darling mdash altogether a fanboy flick flying high because of its referencing of other filmsThe last Bollywood murderfest I watched in a theatre was probably Chup Also set within the film world mdash with Guru Duttrsquos Kaagaz Ke Phool as metaphor binding the movie about killing criticsAlso ReadAyushmann Khurranas ode to the original action hero of BollywoodSpeaking of which since Kaagaz Ke Phool bombed films about the film industry had been considered an anathema in Bollywood Assumption being that audiences donrsquot like the magic of movies demystifiedAnd what do we mean by the magic of movies anyway Stuff that only happens on big screen Take action for instance Pretty much all of us have been in a fight or seen one on the street etc That real action mdash boringly passive even when potentially fatal mdash is nothing like action in lsquoaction filmsrsquoAnd therein lies the issue with a movie that isnrsquot for instance a deliberately overthetop lsquoAkshay Kumarrsquo Rowdy Rathore type action romp Itrsquos a movie on so to say Akshay Kumar himself he also does a cameo hereFor all the smartypants subversion of a genre the fact is as an audience you donrsquot know how to convincingly place all the lsquoJames Bondrsquo summersaults carchases long tireless mortalhand combat sequences mdash that could feel hollowtiring if not fake eventuallyAnd itrsquos not that the filmmakers arenrsquot aware of this In a meta lsquoDeadpoolrsquo kinda way all along you hear dialogues alluding to Oh this is what you expect in a movie is this a film going on or what etcHerersquos where movieaction has retrofitted into whatrsquos actually not an action movie Itrsquos centred on an actor whose life turns on its head because of an accident mdash confronting a local don when hersquos out on a shoot in HaryanaThat guy dies The lsquoactorrsquo is physically responsible mdash Irsquom glad hersquos not named some KhanKapoor for obvious parody The donrsquos big brother mdash whorsquos literally that sort of local figuremdashgoes after the actor Everything thereafter can only happen in moviesDeadly Jaideep Ahlawat plays the avenging Haryanvi big brother At its core this film is supposedly a contestbattle if not a cat and mouse chase between two leads the actor and the gangster Think of it like the killing fields of Badlapur Oh hell noBut let me know not be a killjoy here This is to be fair an engaging film from the get go with enough masalamaterial in it to also humorously weigh in on the starstruck world In effect the desi newsmedia circus that craps on itself on TV all day anyway Anything on mainstream Indian TV news will look like a spoof of a spoofAlso ReadFashion Friday 5 times when An Action Hero star Ayushmann Khurrana amazed with his sartorial choicesYet this film does a delightful job of surveying a bunch of Indian TV anchors mdash best parodies on social media are done by mimiccomic Garima follow her on Insta guys Shersquos there in this film tooAs are random hotheads banging on and on over conspiracy theories to do with Bollywood while a moviestar is on the run Hersquos being chased down by haters he doesnrsquot know In the same way that he was hounded by fans he didnrsquot know either Irony is completeSo yes the movie has a message too Itrsquos an Ayushmann Khurrana film in that sense still Only that wholly plotbased pix especially in Bollywood inevitably hinge upon firstly reversing the usual lsquocurse of the second halfrsquoThe preinterval portions being the setup itrsquos total payoff after This leap of imagination lands nowhere after halftime mdash once the hero himself starts getting deeper and deeper into shit As does the film with no way to get out of it too Full respect for the diveeffort though

'An Action Hero' movie review: Retraction of a hero

Film: An Action Hero
Director: Anirudh Iyer
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Jaideep Ahlawat
Rating: 2/5

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Home / Entertainment / Bollywood News / Article / 'An Action Hero' movie review: Retraction of a hero

'An Action Hero' movie review: Retraction of a hero

Film: An Action HeroDirector: Anirudh IyerCast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Jaideep AhlawatRating: 2/5

Trending Stories

Latest Photos

Latest Videos

Latest Web Stories

Mid-Day Fast

Film: An Action Hero
Director: Anirudh Iyer
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Jaideep Ahlawat
Rating: 2/5