Movie Review

Rating :

Verdict : Familiar subject, weak execution, not upto the mark

The last couple of years have seen some of Amitabh Bachchan’s classics like Don, Sholay and Agneepath getting remade in Bollywood and opening to mixed reviews from the audience. Now it’s the turn of director Apoorva Lakhia to come up with a remake of Big B’s cult film ‘Zanjeer’. This remake stars Ram Charan, the heartthrob of Tollywood, in the lead role with Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra essaying other key roles. The movie has seen a simultaneous release in both Hindi and Telugu worldwide and let’s read on to know more about it.

Story:-

Vijay Khanna (Ram Charan) is a sincere police officer who is often transferred to different postings because of his upright attitude. He comes on a transfer to Mumbai where he comes across a police case in which Teja (Prakash Raj), an oil mafia don, is involved.

On a different track, Mala (Priyanka Chopra) is an NRI who is visiting Mumbai to attend a friend’s wedding and incidentally, she witnesses a murder involving Teja and his gang.

Mala ends up as the sole witness in this high profile murder case and soon enough Vijay approaches Mala to help him in cracking the case.

As Vijay starts digging deeper into the murder case, he comes across Sher Khan (Sanjay Dutt) who helps him in getting closer to Teja. The rest of the story is about how Vijay manages to crack the high profile case and put Teja behind the bars.

Positive Points:-

Ram Charan definitely had the daunting task of stepping into Big B’s shoes as Inspector Vijay Khanna for his Bollywood debut and once can safely say that he has done a decent job. His action sequences and angry looks manage to create a strong impact on the audiences.

Priyanka, as usual, looks glamorous and brings in the much needed oomph factor in the film. Sanjay Dutt as Sher Khan, who had the challenge of playing a role that had been earlier played by Pran, plays his part with utmost sincerity.

Overall, the work done on the looks for each character is praise-worthy. Some of the hi-octane action sequences look authentic and the narrative and production values of the movie look contemporary.

Negative Points:-

While history has proved quite a few times that remakes don’t usually create the same impact as the original, this proves right in the case with Zanjeer as well. Though Apoorva Lakhia manages to get the set up right, he loses it in his execution.

The film has an overdose of violence and we can constantly see Ram Charan smashing and beating up goons throughout the movie. Prakash Raj is not a patch on Ajit from the original flick and the talented actor is completely wasted in the movie.

Mahie Gill, who portrays the role of the vamp Mona, is again extremely uncanny. Another actor who turns out to be a disappointment is Atul Kulkarni as he goes over the top with his sequences.

Technical aspects:-

Despite director Apoorva having a readymade plot available in-hand, he couldn’t use it efficiently and effectively. The songs have a zero impact and come up in all the wrong places in the film. The background score of the film is a bit weak.

Some scenes in the movie are not well connected and also confuse the viewers at one point. The first half feels stretched while the second half is short and snappy.

As mentioned earlier, Apoorva Lakhia gets the set up and the look of the film right. He has nicely woven the same old angry young police officer’s story in today’s contemporary scenario.