Movie Review: Commando - A One Man Army
Director: Dilip Ghosh
Cast: Vidyut Jamwal, Pooja Chopra and Jaideep Ahlawat
Okay, you understand Vipul Shah and Akshay Kumar are no longer friends when the chief villain in this Vipul Shah produced film is called AK. Jaideep Ahlawat, who brings the character to life, has a good screen presence. Unfortunately, he’s been reduced to playing a baddie with a yen for Santa-Banta jokes. Director Dilip Ghosh was perhaps too influenced by yesteryear villain Ajit, who wisecracked his way to glory. Well, all we can say is that Jaideep is no Ajit and he should have just worked on being menacing. The same is the fate of the film’s hero Vidyut Jamwal, who’s good at action and stunts (allegedly done by him) but loses the plot when it comes to emoting. He is hampered by some cheesy dialogue as well. Heroine Pooja Chopra tries to do a motor-mouth act, a la Basanti from Sholay. Well, Hema Malini is a hard act to follow and maybe Pooja shouldn’t have tried so hard to be bubbly. The problem is that Vidyut, being the silent hero type, doesn’t get to speak in half of the film (good thing for him, given the cheesy lines). So someone had to fill in with the lines and save the film from being a silent action movie.
The story, like Vidyut’s physique, is influenced by Rambo franchise. Vidyut plays a commando who strays into Chinese territory and is captured by them and labelled a spy. He undergoes Rambo-like torture for one year and later escapes back to India, where he runs into our heroine, who’s running away from home as she doesn’t want to marry a local goon. Our hero saves her and they escape to the jungle, where they are chased by the forest guards, the villain and his henchmen and the police. The hero sets very Rambo like traps and manages to kill most of the opposition, and reserves the best for a patriotic encounter with the villain in the town square at the end.
The film is good in places where Vidyut gets to play the commando. The action is fast and slick, notches ahead of what’s generally shown in Hindi films. However, character development is kept to the minimum, the story lies in tatters, as does the screenplay. The director should have done away with unnecessary songs as well.
So go watch the film if you like Ong Bak kind of fight scenes. This film is strictly for action junkies. And one hopes Arnie fans can forgive Dilip Ghosh for maligning the title of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s cult classic Commando (1985), where the beefy hero showed he really was a one-man army.
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