Brothers

Rating : 3/10
Release Date : 14th August, 2015
Time : 158 minutes
Director: Karan Malhotra; Writer: Siddharth-Garima based on the movie Warrior, written by Gavin O’Connor and Cliff Dorfman; Music : Ajay-Atul
Starring : Akshay Kumar, Siddharth Malhotra, Jackie Shroff, Shefali Shah, Jacqueline Fernandez



Most Hindi films suffer from the curse of the second half, where they aren’t able to sustain the story, dialogue all the way through. Not this one. Brothers has one of the worst first halves I’ve ever seen – we are introduced to alcoholism, death, ‘Masoom’-like, estranged step-brothers, a jailed father, kidney failure, financial debt, hallucinations – and, yes, there is maybe 5 minutes worth of fighting too. No one smiles in the entire pre-interval portion and it’s dull, dreary, melancholic, downright depressive, and also, from a story point of view, completely unnecessary. And then, the second half, thankfully, is all about the fighting – though even here they lose no opportunity to bring in the emotional angle…

Story-wise, it’s just enough to say that Jackie Shroff is the father, an ex-fighter and an alcoholic. Shefali Shah, the long suffering mom, Jackie’s wife. Akshay, the elder son, married to Jacqueline (in a non-existent role). And Siddharth Malhotra is the younger (literally) brother from another mother (the Masoom angle). When Jackie is released from jail, two things are clear – a businessman has got permission from the government to bring the sport of MMA (mixed martial arts) to India (kind of legalizing street fighting). And, one brother is not talking to the other or the father… Next thing we know (and after just one street fight each & no core fighting /marital art skill), both the brothers are amongst ten elite fighters from all over the world, chosen for the first finals in Mumbai, competing for a Rs 9 crore prize.

Now, because they spent the entire first half in the soppy stuff, we know none of the other fighters, which makes it drearily predictable in terms of the outcome…

The fight scenes aren’t bad but because we don’t really care for anyone, it’s quite boring in a sense. Rajrendranath Zutshi (remember him from Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak?) as a sports commentator, at least brings a touch of levity and vigour to the proceedings. The performances are half-decent, the songs are terrible, and the item number (with Kareena Kapoor) one of the most ridiculous in terms of either the lyrics, music or choreography.

This is the official remake of Warrior (I haven’t seen it) but I think it’s telling that the original’s length is 100 minutes while this one is bloated by a full, unnecessary hour. I know everyone in the film industry thinks Indian cine-goers need more emotion, drama – but perhaps not by that much or that depressing ?