Director: Anirudh Iyer
Cast: Ayushmann Khurrana, Jaideep Ahlawat, and others
Where: In theatres near you
Rating: 3.5 stars
Ayushmann Khurrana, who is a flag-bearer of socially relevant films in our Hindi film industry, brings a coming-of-age action film for the first time titled An Action Hero. It is helmed by debutant filmmaker Anirudh Iyer, who has assisted director-producer Aanand L Rai on his heartland stories, the last one being the Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Zero (2018).
Manav (Ayushmann), a movie superstar accidentally kills Vicky, the younger brother of a local goon Bhoora (Jaideep Ahlawat). Bhoora then decides to kill Manav at any cost. How far Bhoora will go to take revenge is what the film’s about.
In terms of plot and style of filmmaking, An Action Hero is a mix of Fan (2016) and Ayushmann’s much-celebrated film Andhadhun (2018). First-time director Anirudh surely creates a mad world of chase and chaos but the core idea fizzles out in the second half. Anirudh’s film says a lot of things besides the script. His film smartly targets the media and film industry in general.
An Action Hero is an intelligent take on the current news scenario in our country, however, the film also does a mockery of the celebrated prime-time news mafia, a sarcastic joke on the representation of world-famous terrorists. Also, it highlights the shallowness of the public, who treat famous figures according to their national portrayal. The film has a lot of potential but the intention to call it a thrilling or a revenge drama is no point.
This is probably a film that promised something else in the trailer and turns out to be something else on a big screen. A two-hero film is not a rarity, Vikram Vedha is a recent solid example of two equal men fighting for their own lives, An Action Hero is also one of them but the real beauty is that this film is only about two characters, and both are central.
Ayushmann attempts to do something different like never before, although he is currently not a commercially viable actor as his last four films were duds. Jaideep takes the cake with his powerful performance. He might have an advantage of being a Haryanvi originally but as Bhoora, he is just too good. He is certainly worthy of being a poster boy.
An Action Hero might derail from the set formula concept, but it might entertain and delve deeper into world affairs.
