Gabbar Is Back Hindi Movie
In a scene from the film Gabbar is Back, one of Gabbar's team members is told that his father's name is at the top of the corrupt list, which makes him a prized target of their vigilante justice. The son agrees with them, but he doesn't want to be the one doing the punishing and watching his father suffer. "He might be a bad man, but I'm his good son", he says. This scene actually manages to evoke sympathy and something close to pride inside of you, which is a firm win for the film. But the fact that this sudden and unexpected burst of emotion comes so late in the day, well into the second half, tells you a lot about how much of a success the film really is.
Telugu director Krish, in his debut Bollywood outing, presents a picture of our society that is plagued by one of the biggest ills in a functioning democracy, a disease that's infected many a hearts and minds today: corruption. The palms of government officials are greasier than the almond oil in their slick hair. The struggle of the common man and empathy for them seems to be a cause taken up only by the common man himself. The rich travel in their swanky cars, while the ordinary people commute via rickshaws in the burning heat. Hospitals are exploitative, government offices don't get any work done, commercial builders take shortcuts that put the life of the residents in danger.
Unfortunately, the one and the most important thing that Krish and his writer Rajat Arora forget to include in the film is any sense of genuineness. A topic as sensitive as this needed to be tackled in a much more sincere and tactful manner, something that Akshay Kumar's Baby managed to do somewhat successfully this year.
Instead, corruption gets the bombastic, superfluous Akshay Kumar action treatment. Gabbar and his team kidnap bribe-taking officials to beat them down, so that Akshay Kumar can show off his kung-fu skills. There are random goons arriving to attack random people, so that Akshay Kumar can show off his kung fu skills. Since corruption is an intangible that is impossible to physically assault with fists and kicks, it is given an evil representative in the form of the villainous business tycoon Digvijay Patil, so that Akshay Kumar can once again show off his kung fu skills.
We are also served with a half-cooked love story, because even when you're tackling powerful corporations and devious police officers, you still need to fall in love. And obviously, if you're doing some good for the society like Gabbar is, you have to have a tragic back story about another love of your life dying at the hands of evil.
It also doesn't help that Gabbar the character is a bit of a self-proclaimed hero. He repeatedly mouths dialogues like "naam se villain, kaam se hero" and "main ek brand hoon, ek hero hoon". It's hard to praise someone for their actions when they're repeatedly and openly praising themselves.
Also compounding matters is the fact that Gabbar's method of vigilante justice is a bit misguided. He takes pride in taking the extralegal route and is almost gleeful about killing his hostages. No matter how the film tries to justify and even rectify it, the fact remains that Gabbar is a cold-blooded murderer, never mind if his victims are bad people. Another thing that is far from helpful is the fact that the film preaches about imbibing good values in ourselves, then openly objectifies women by metaphorically groping a scantily-clad Chitrangada Singh during a horribly-composed item number by Yo Yo Honey Singh.
The film also misses out in building the thrill of the chase. In similar kinds of movies, playing up the scenario of the police decoding clues and closing in on the trail of the well-intentioned protagonist usually makes for a genuinely thrilling subplot, another thing that Akshay Kumar's own Baby did quite well. Here, we get a bunch of listless and clueless cops and a CBI officer who make even their constable seem like a genius for spotting some easily visible connections.
Director Krish quite literally copy-and-pastes his South Indian sensibilities from his Telugu films without making any sort of adjustments for the tastes and preferences of the Hindi movie audiences, which makes Gabbar an even harder experience to sit through. He isn't helped by Rajat Arora, who's descent into mediocrity continues with Kick and Gabbar Is Back, after impressing with Once Upon a Time in Mumbaai and The Dirty Picture. His "additional screenplay" is naive and overly-optimistic, while his dialogues rely too heavily on cringe-worthy metaphors, like comparing our government to a baby's diaper and the dump that you take first thing in in the morning.
There are 2 things that manage to save this ship from sinking without a trace. Firstly, despite all of its follies and amateurish execution, the fact remains that it's hard to doubt the film's noble intentions. It genuinely does its level best in trying to get its point across to its audience, sometimes a little too bluntly. But even if it manages to awaken something inside of a handful of its lower-income audience, a strata to which the film might prove appealing and entertaining, then it will have mightily succeeded in its endeavor.
Secondly, the film is ably anchored by Akshay Kumar's central performance. You can actually tell that Akshay genuinely believes in the film and its message, which is more than you can say about most of his harebrained action snooze-fests. It's this belief that finally shakes him completely awake, and he ends up delivering his finest performance in some time. Even in the film's most unconvincing moments, of which there are plenty, Akshay is never less than captivating. Every time he goes into one of his rants about the shoddy state of our country's functioning, you can spot a crackling fire in his eyes that had been missing for some time. It's in these moments of his forceful performance that the film isn't as hopeless an opus.
The remainder of the cast acts as a counterweight to Akshay Kumar, each of them trying their hardest to bring the film down. Shruti Haasan is dismal as Akshay's love interest. Sunil Grover is better off with lipstick on his face and a wig on his head, playing Gutthi. Suman Talwar, who portrays the main villain, is the most unintentionally funny performance by an antagonist in a Hindi film in some time. Watch out for the scene in which he barks orders at the screen, "Rewind. Stop. Play. Zoom zoom zoom". Pure gem.
Whoever said "it's the thought that matters" clearly didn't have to sit through the 2+ hours of faux vigilantism that is Gabbar is Back. The idea might've been right, but the treatment is all wrong. Akshay Kumar tries his hardest to salvage this train wreck (a rare occurrence), sadly to no avail. The perfect film tackling corruption still eludes our grasp, much like the cure for corruption itself. Hopefully that day will come soon, but that day sadly isn't today.
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