Zanjeer

Rating : 2/10
Release Date : 6th September, 2013
Time : 137 minutes
Director, Writer : Apoorva Lakhia; Music : Meet Bros Anjjan, Chirantan Bhatt
Starring : Ram Charan, Priyanka Chopra, Sanjay Dutt, Prakash Raj, Mahie Gill, Atul Kulkarni

Everyone is a laughable caricature in the film. They’ve basically taken the broad storyline from the ’73 film and sucked the life and soul from it, reducing everything to a high-decibel, badly scripted joke. And the ‘Yaari Hai, Imaan Hai Mera’ replacement song is so awful, they should probably be fined for grevious bodily harm to a classic…

Its still about an angry cop (Ram Charan), who has been transferred 17 times in 5 years, now sent to Mumbai and there he takes on the oil mafia. Led by the silly, cartoon-ish Prakash Raj, who, far from being menacing, just makes you groan in disbelief. Ram Charan also meets Priyanka Chopra, an NRI who’s knowledge of India is solely based on Hindi films and again, is silly beyond belief. Sanjay Dutt at least remains consistent but without any reason behind what he does, why…

Be prepared for a lot of bone-crunching, cable-assisted fight sequences (shouldn’t they have kept the action real ?). I had issues with literally everything (Atul Kulkarni’s character probably the only one not totally screwed up, with some good lines), even the make-up for the hero looking very fake at some points. Why do Ram Charan and Sanjay Dutt become friends ? Why / when / how do Priyanka and Ram Charan start having feelings other than irritation for each other ? Why does Prakash Raj just keep making threats, keep talking, when he has the ability to kill ? How do bullets miss their target twice, despite being fired from less than three feet away ?

The songs are as bad as the rest of the film, the dialogue trashy, the emotions fake, the situations contrived. And the sad part is I actually like most of the actors in the film. Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka, Prakash Raj have all shown what they’re capable of in other films. And have always had a soft spot for Ram Charan since watching him in the fantastical Magadheera a few years ago…

Most film-makers seem to spend a lot of time acquiring remake rights / casting for the film. Wish they spent half that scripting it. Or even just thinking about what the original film was about, what was its essence. Because after the final product, you realize they don’t have a clue…