When you go looking for John Wick type of films chances are you will be directed to Rocky Handsome. While some of the action featured definitely looks similar to what you get in a John Wick film it's very much an almost scene by scene remake of The Man from Nowhere.
Unfortunately like with most remakes it suffers from the same mistakes that most do. The tone and the impact is vastly different. I have no problems with John Abraham. Even though he seems to be very limited acting wise. He only has a few expressions. Well, as fate would have it. For this film that is exactly what was needed. But at times I was wondering if he weren't a big too big in the muscle department to pull off the moves that were required of him. Most of the time he only moves his arms because everything else is too stiff or in the way. It kinda detracts from the immersion although I was able to ignore it at one point for the sake of my own enjoyment. The action is solid enough to give you somewhat of a fix. But everything else was a little problematic.
The story and the characters made it hard to give the events the urgency that was so essential in the original. The dialogue and the interactions people have in this film seem too goofy and far fetched to take seriously. The villains don't look or act that menacing. Apart from the acts that are committed in their name. I am aware it's an old Bollywood trope to have some of the villains joke around to take the edge off. In this case crazy doesn't equal evil. So it was kind of pointless. The little girl was cute and sweet. Who wouldn't want to go ballistic and break some heads? But I wished a better connection and relationship was established. K.A. seemed indifferent and suddenly has a change of heart because of her tears? Come on, you need to do better than that. Another element that should have not been in the film is the musical numbers. Even if they are intertwined in a way that they do seem to be part of the plot they do extend the length of the film artificially which only makes a relative slow film even slower. And it's not like any of those songs were good. I am all for music that enhances the viewing experience if it is able to intensify the action for example. But none of that here.
I must confess that I deliberately look up Indian John Wick which lead me to this title. Why? Because I think there are a lot of good action directors and stunt people in Bollywood and if only they took action a little more serious they could reach the same heights of the glory days of Hong Kong. They are getting closer but they need definitely need to let go of their typical conventions. So is this what I hoped for? No. Like I said I was able to find enjoyment concerning the action scenes. But they weren't as lengthy or hard hitting as I wanted them to be. And at times you could see that Abraham wasn't really hitting. That's just sloppy. As remakes go this could be worse but for me it wasn't enough.
If you are looking for good Gun fu and Heroic Bloodshed titles then click on the picture underneath. I am sure you will find some gems on there:
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