Drawing inspiration from Hollywood's cheesiest action flick 'Knight and Day' and showcasing both brawn and beauty in all previews, director Siddharth Anand didn't quite set expectations of anything sensible in this glamorous, big-budget extravaganza. However, 'Bang Bang' does 3 things well and these are the factors contributing to its runaway financial success. You will be entertained, moderately satisfied and for a big budget film these days, that's mission accomplished.
The premise of all the action and heroism involves an international villain Omar Zafar (Danny Denzongpa)'s attempt to thwart the Indo-UK extradition treaty from getting executed. He declares a reward for any Indian thief who can steal the Kohinoor diamond so that the hype around the theft could alter the government's plans on the treaty. Our hero Rajveer (Hrithik Roshan), walks away with the precious gem and offers a trade off in Shimla but things go wrong with the greedy dealers and later on, he meets Harleen (Katrina Kaif), who is simply charmed by this suave stranger who she mistook for being her blind date. A bit of song and dance, action, car chase and escape later, they encounter Zorawar (Pawan Malhotra), a Government officer who attempts to capture Rajveer but a close escape sees the couple transported from Shimla to a remote island where it all seems like a vacation for a while. Some exemplary cellular connectivity enables their foes to suddenly appear at the hideout and in no time, the couple escape again, only to end up in a hotel in Prague.
Here, the objective is to extract the location of Omar Zafar from his top aide, Hamid Gul (Jaaved Jaffrey) but as things go wrong upon the hotel's terrace, Harleen has been informed about Rajveer's true intentions by Zorawar. Her distrust leads to Rajveer handing over the Kohinoor to her, triggering a location tracker that leads Zorawar's squad to them and forcing our hero to jump off the bridge to his uncertain death.
Shortly after, in yet another turn of events, Harleen gets kidnapped by Zafar who learns about the fake kohinoor. The hero silently eliminates guard after guard around the fortress in the desert and after some action, chase sequences and Harleen's romance on a high, they all end up in a burning plane. The wounded hero wakes up in a hospital, surrounded by the government officials who worked with Zorawar and the next thing you know, Harleen secretly transports him out of there on a journey that will take him to his home.
The director takes the idea of remaking quite literally and neglects any possible reinvention of the plot. With intellect thus left in the bin, he solely escalates the action and visual appeal through the screen presence of the actors, locations and song sequences. Not surprisingly, that approach works this time around as they look stunning throughout the movie, the locations are fresh and simply spectacular whereas the song sequences are brilliantly choreographed.
Therefore, the three things that make this film work are:
Hrithik-Katrina – Rarely has a pair complemented each other as well when it comes to a visual appeal on screen. This is what Hrithik should be doing if he is to only appear once a year. The film exploits his talent in terms of dancing and limited action without a stunt man while of course providing enough opportunity for him to display the brawn that he works on for the entire year. This one is for his ardent fans.
Katrina doesn't have much in it to display her acting skills but certainly, her beauty remains unparalleled.
Locations - Meherbaan is that optimized visual feast with Santorini and Mykonos in the background of good looking actors romancing. Uff showcases spectacular parts of the Himalayas during winter that were rarely witnessed before. Prague's heritage appeal is also well captured by the cinematographers. The gorgeous beaches of Thailand as well as a brief car chase through Abu Dhabi add to this cinematic journey across continents.
Music – The highlight of the film appears at the very end when we witness some incredible choreography that has Hrithik moving in such a fluid manner that makes him look unreal. Bang Bang is an epic closing to the film that also saw Hrithik in another crazily choreographed song, Tu meri. Apart from the dances here, just watching the stunning pair in Meherbaan and Uff is worth the ticket price.
'Bang Bang' doesn't take itself too seriously either. The action is sometimes impressive and often over-the-top, with many visuals struggling with the special effects. But with a budget of just over $22 million, viewers will take that and appreciate the director's effort to top a movie like 'Knight and Day'(which wasn't quite a challenge). With an aim to be a commercial entertainer that has solid visual appeal with attractive actors, locations and action sequences, the movie does pretty well. Expectations of this being an intellectually satisfying outing at the cinemas should be deemed as those coming out of an imbecile's head. If 'Kick' can make the kind of money it did, let alone the prospects of Farah Khan's next stupidity, then Hrithik and Katrina deserve this limelight that shines bright upon their night and day.
- 6.877 on a scale of 1-10.