I had high hopes for this Hindi action film billed as the most violent film to ever be produced in India. Sadly, it gets bogged down in a cheesy neo-Romeo & Juliet love story-meets-Under Siege (you know the plot: villains hijack a large commercial vehicle only to discover that a badass military dude happens to be on said vehicle. Augmenting this all-too-familiar tale is extremely cheesy dialogue (if we are to believe this film as an accurate representation of modern India, then men call each other “bro” way too much over there). Toss in an an all-too-obvious (and common) thread about the caste system and inequality in India to top it all off.
None of this would raise an eyebrow if the film actually tweaked the formula, but it fails to elevate the containment action film, in this case the ever-popular “stuck on a train” sub-genre.
To be fair, there are some brilliant moments of gonzo ultra violence, but they all too often get lost in the thin storyline, corny verbal repartee, and one-dimensional characters. Sure, there is some bristling action, grimace inducing gore (a scene involving a toilet is sufficiently jarring and another utilizing Zippo lighter fluid is somewhat inspired), but also moments of missed opportunity (the kill shot using a fire extinguisher ends up fizzling out).
The film rolls along at a decent enough pace until the 40-minute mark where it goes off the rails for a good 30-minutes. But then it looses steam.
It doesn’t help that one fight scene takes place in almost total darkness, which is a complete cop-out. It also doesn’t help that the final boss is ultimately lame and our hero dispatches him with ease.
In a year that has been filled with revenge oriented action films—Monkey Man and Boy Kills World, specifically—this one falls a bit short (though I found it slightly better than BKW).
Honestly, I kept waiting for the cast to break out into an item number in the tight confines of the train aisles. Now that woulda been killer!
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