Holiday - A Soldier is Never Off Duty, is releasing at the end of Holiday season yet there are very fair chances that this film will do well at the box office. It's an Out and out Akshay's film, with a superb screenplay and a sleek direction by A R Murgadoss. 

HOLIDAY - A SOLDIER IS NEVER OFF DUTY is a remake of the Tamil action-thriller THUPPAKKI of 2012; starring Vijay and Kajal Aggarwal, which won immense critical acclaim and reaped a rich harvest at the box-office. Obviously, the expectations are huge. Apart from Akshay and Sonakhi Seen in supporting roles are Govinda, Sumeet Raghavan and Freddy Daruwala.

 its a story of Virat Bakshi (Akshay Kumar) who is a Captain in DIA (Defence Intelligence Agency), a wing of the Indian Army. He returns to his hometown for a holiday, but is set off on a mission rather than bunking it out in his room. His mission involves tracking down sleeper agents in Mumbai as he discovers their plan to blast six different areas simultaneously, within the city. His ultimate quest is to find the leader of the sleeper cells played by Freddy Daruwala. He is helped by his police inspector companion, played by Sumeet Raghavan. The plot running on parallel lines, involves Saiba( Sonakshi Sinha) who is a boxer and is Virat’s love interest in the film.

When one attempts to remake South Indian hits in Hindi, one makes modifications to suit the Northern sensibilities, which only enhances the project in question. Murugadoss does exactly that in HOLIDAY - A SOLDIER IS NEVER OFF DUTY. 

Akshay steals the show with his mind blowing stunts and action scenes. He looks a true Army man and thankfully does justice to the role. Known for his deadly stunts and mighty kicks, there’s no beating Akki when it comes to action. Apart from Akshay, Sumeet Raghavan is surprisingly a treat to watch. Perfect comic timing topped with witty one liners, Raghavan has managed to create an impact with his character. Along with this, the sudden twist in the story is interesting. Where this film starts out with the cliched “girl hates boy and vice-versa” nonsense, it grows intense with a scene showcasing the first bomb blast followed by Akshay Kumar’s chasing sequence. The action stunts although hideously defying the entire law of science on the whole, still manage to create that “wow” effect.  For instance there’s a scene where Akshay Kumar twists the bones of his fractured arm to their original place, and continues to fight the villain. At this stage, one would be certain that logic isn’t one of the strong points of the film. 

Additionally, in a majority of entertainers, the star power over powers the screenplay but HOLIDAY - A SOLDIER IS NEVER OFF DUTY comes across as an exception because the smartly-packaged fare never loses focus from its core issue  which is about the fight between an army man and terrorists. The post-interval portions is a race-against-time thriller mode. Also, Murugadoss employs the right tricks to woo the entertainment-seeking spectator -- abundant turns in the screenplay, the face off between good and evil, the hand-to-hand combat, the subtle humor, the nail-biting finale et al -- but at the end of the day, the message that the film communicates resonates loud and clear. 

As far As the casting is concerned, it fall very much in place. Sonakshi give a very fresh and light mood to the scenes where as villain Freddy Daruwala has done justice to the role. Govinda's role should have neen increased as even today there is a huge fan following of Govinda. 

The music of the film by Pritam fails to make us hum the tunes. Although the dance sequences manage to grab eyeballs with their unique choreography, the songs are worth a miss.

On the whole Holiday- A Soldier is Never Off Duty, has done its duty of spreading the message of patriotism in a very sleek and entertaining way. The thrust here is firmly on common man's duty towards his country. It is worth watching once and specially Akshay's fans will have a great time.