Action Replayy Movie Review: Time Travel that’s stale !!!

Ever since Vipul Shah directed his first Bollywood film- Aankhen (2002), he’s formed a successful combination with his favorite actor- Akshay Kumar. Incidentally the only film which of Vipul Shah which didn’t hit the bull’s eye happens to be London Dreams which didn’t have Akshay Kumar. So when ‘Action Replayy’ the next film from the same combination got announced, it naturally raised the expectations. After all both Vipul and Akshay needed a solid hit again and what better way to deliver it than by working together. For all those who have been clued on to the promotion/publicity of the film you would be aware that the film was touted to be a colourful throwback to the 70’s with Akshay and Aishwarya Rai coming together after a brief dalliance in Khakee.

But then the curiosity in me was aroused when I saw the very first promo of the film. Somehow something looked wrong or misplaced. Seeing Aditya Roy Kapoor( in a very fleeting moment in the promo ) I also got the idea that probably the movie was similar to Robert Zemeckis’s Back To The Future starring Michael J.Fox which came out way back in 1985. But just when a lot many more people started thinking similarly about the influence; the team of Action Replayy promptly claimed that the movie was based upon a Gujarati play- Action Replay. And that’s what is mentioned in the opening credits of the film as well. Ok so before I go on & on about the influence let me mention something about Action Replayy in detail.

Zor ka Jhatka!!!

For those who still haven’t figured out the plot by now, here I go. It’s the 35th wedding anniversary of Kishen (Akshay Kumar) and Mala (Aishwarya Rai). They have a son Bunty (Aditya Roy Kapoor) who is afraid of committing to marry his girlfriend Tanya (Sudeepa Singh). Bunty has always seen his parents quarrelling and feels that getting married will probably make it worse for him as well. Tanya’s grandfather Prof.Anthony Gonsalves (Randhir Kapoor) is a scientist who advises Bunty that he should either marry Tanya or else forget her. As things between Kishen and Mala get worse during their anniversary party, Bunty realizes that he has to do something and so he sneak’s away in Prof.Gonalves’s time machine and sets off into the past.

Bunty lands up in the same city, in the year 1975 and his mission on hand is to ensure that his parents have a love story before they get married. How Bunty goes about doing this is what the rest of the movie is all about.So we get treated to Akshay as Kishen doing the lallu act all over again (already seen so many times in films like Jaan-E-Maan, Chandni Chowk to China, House Full etc ) and Aishwarya having nothing much to do again. There are also a whole host of prominent supporting actors like Om Puri, Kirron Kher, Rajpal Yadav, Rannvijay Singh etc who try their best to remain earnest but cannot create much of an impact. Though a couple of moments when Rajpal Yadav says “saara kaam main hi karoonga kya”? are reasonably funny.

Akshay with Aditya

Pritam’s music certainly disappoints and even the most popular song – “Zor ka Jhatka” doesn’t really pass muster thanks to the lackluster way in which it gets placed in the film. Coming to the retro look of the 70’s that’s been recreated here in the film, well what can I say about it except that it’s clearly coming across in a pop avatar (which worked for a film like OSO due to its premise). While Vipul Shah ripped off the basic theme from Back to the Future, it would have been good if he had also laid some emphasis on capturing the 70’s in a more authentic form than what is ultimately shown in the film. Also seeing the way Bunty goes about completing his task makes you wonder why life can’t get so easy for all of us as well

And what makes it even more irritating is to see the way consistency has been completely overlooked in the film. Check out the way Aditya’s hair style keeps changing from time to time ( long to short & vice versa ) or for the fact that some of Aishwarya’s costumes do not appear retro in any way.Those are still small things that can be overlooked but what about the fact that the movie’s promotion has been completely misleading the audience? Confused? Well let me explain- aren’t all the promos and the posters talking about the film as an Akshay- Aishwarya project? So for those who go about expecting the film to be a typical Akshay Kumar light entertainer it could be a surprise and it remains to be seen whether they appreciate the surprise or not.

This Diwali, the festival of lights would have been brighter at the cinemas if this movie had lived up to its initial potential, sadly it’s an opportunity lost. I will recommend a repeat of Back to the Future anytime over this.

Originally published in PFC- http://passionforcinema.com/action-replayy-movie-review-time-travel-thats-stale/