Come every festival time and at least one of our shining Bollywood stars rises to deliver a mas-ala entertainer. Boss came. Boss went. The trailer promised much but the actual film sucked. The same old formula is at play- comedy fused action, punch in the guts dialogs, outlandish stunts, Honey Singh and Mika hip hop monotone songs, every alternate scene in slow motion, and inconsequential ladies. This formula has reduced so called entertainers to be near clones of each other, and rather than movie quality, it is the audiences ' fancy deciding whether one is a hit or not.
There is an attempt at emotion though- a father turning his son out, and their reunion story. Mithun Chakraborty gives the worst performance of his career as an hackneyed school teacher, preaching non violence and driving that point hard by wearing Gandhian specs. Akshay Kumar playing the titular character, a kind hearted Haryanvi gangster, is a cross between his previous mas-ala characters- Rowdy Rathod and Singh is Kinng. He enters even later than Batman making his entry in The Dark Knight Rises, and brings on the heavy guns- . He only kicks ass if music is playing. Logic says he carry an ipod or two then. But no- this is modern day entertainment. So he carries a full on orchestra, along with dancing girls for his fighting needs. And when he gets bored of beating people to pulp, he indulges them in an attritional game of free running. The laughs are mostly build around crazy plot twists- a bomb placed in someone's rear and a plumber with a spanner taking it out, a truck track, a rocking chair assembled of men- take your pick.
Then there is Ronit Roy- the suave but corrupt policeman, also described as chandal, kamina, and other godly terms. He lacks a moral compass. Ronit and Akshay started out at the same time, but their careers have gone in different directions. Ronit is one bright spark about Boss, he looks and acts more bad-ass than Boss himself. Then there is a host of good, supporting actors like Parikshit Sahni, Danny, Shakti Kapoor, Johnny Lever, Sudesh Berry, Aditi Rao Hydari who do not knw what they are doing. Wait- not Aditi- she knows what she is doing, this is after all, her bikini movie- the slender two piece has very high ROI. It has made millionaires out of paupers, so there is that.
If i were to find positives, i would think director Anthony D'Souza has improved upon his previous outing- Blue, but that is not saying how good Boss is as it is saying how bad Blue was. Boss is beating the donkey dead. Strangely, even Akshay realizes that - he not only looks old, and haggard, he looks positively tired. The audience is also tired- 4/10
There is an attempt at emotion though- a father turning his son out, and their reunion story. Mithun Chakraborty gives the worst performance of his career as an hackneyed school teacher, preaching non violence and driving that point hard by wearing Gandhian specs. Akshay Kumar playing the titular character, a kind hearted Haryanvi gangster, is a cross between his previous mas-ala characters- Rowdy Rathod and Singh is Kinng. He enters even later than Batman making his entry in The Dark Knight Rises, and brings on the heavy guns- . He only kicks ass if music is playing. Logic says he carry an ipod or two then. But no- this is modern day entertainment. So he carries a full on orchestra, along with dancing girls for his fighting needs. And when he gets bored of beating people to pulp, he indulges them in an attritional game of free running. The laughs are mostly build around crazy plot twists- a bomb placed in someone's rear and a plumber with a spanner taking it out, a truck track, a rocking chair assembled of men- take your pick.
Then there is Ronit Roy- the suave but corrupt policeman, also described as chandal, kamina, and other godly terms. He lacks a moral compass. Ronit and Akshay started out at the same time, but their careers have gone in different directions. Ronit is one bright spark about Boss, he looks and acts more bad-ass than Boss himself. Then there is a host of good, supporting actors like Parikshit Sahni, Danny, Shakti Kapoor, Johnny Lever, Sudesh Berry, Aditi Rao Hydari who do not knw what they are doing. Wait- not Aditi- she knows what she is doing, this is after all, her bikini movie- the slender two piece has very high ROI. It has made millionaires out of paupers, so there is that.
If i were to find positives, i would think director Anthony D'Souza has improved upon his previous outing- Blue, but that is not saying how good Boss is as it is saying how bad Blue was. Boss is beating the donkey dead. Strangely, even Akshay realizes that - he not only looks old, and haggard, he looks positively tired. The audience is also tired- 4/10