Director Nishikant Kamat knows his science well. If force is equal to the product of mass and acceleration, he has got plenty of muscular mass and pace to augment your adrenaline level. It is an attempt to create a desi kind of action porn which Hollywood delivers for the front-benchers week after week with the likes of Jason Statham and Vin Diesel cold-bloodedly leading the charge of stone-faced heroes hit by personal loss.
In terms of content, Kamat has tried to live up to another Newton's law which says to every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. For years, our filmmakers and some politicians have thrived on the basis of this law, which could be termed as Rakshak-Ghajini law in popular parlance. Every hero has a soft spot, villain spots that spot, torments it, and it gives the hero the licence to kill. Now it depends on the writing and the performance as to how much the galleries root for the hero and the balcony silently invests in the emotional angle.
Kamat, known for sensitive films like Mumbai Meri Jaan , delivers the popular punch without saying goodbye to sense. It starts as a cat and mouse game between the drug mafia and the narcotics cell of the police led by ACP Yashvardhan (John Abraham).
The setting, the characterisation and the banter between the cops (Mohnish Behl stands out in the supporting act) is spot on even if the strategies they employ to nab the culprits are rather archaic. In comes an NGO worker (Genelia at her bubbly best) and our stiff cop gets a little malleable towards a girl who is ready to take initiative in love and lust. For once it's the heroine, who serenades the hero and it works particularly because John doesn't look like a cosmetic beefcake.
Against the run of play, our hero, who prefers elimination to arrest, shoots the kingpin of the gang (Mukesh Rishi). His ruthless brother and successor Vishnu (Vidyut Jamwal) takes it as ACP's attempt to play god and decides to play devil. Here on starts a revenge drama where Vishnu targets the near and dear ones of the cops.
Heavily inspired by Tamil hit Kakha Kakha , it goes without saying that John Abraham lacks the dynamism that Suriya possesses, but Kamat valiantly tries to bail him out by chiselling some character traits which gel well with John's personality. Like the scene where Yashvardhan admits that he hates dance and drama, you sense that it's John sharing his plight! Or when Genelia asks about the lack of expression on his face, Yash replies, “there is no back story, just a manufacturing defect.” It is this tone that lends some layers to this relentless slug fest between rippled men seeking vengeance. When he is hit by personal loss, John doesn't go hysterical and Kamat gives him dialogues in Hinglish that dispassionately sum up the ACP's inclination to eliminate rather than arrest the drug dealers.
Vidyut is even more expressionless than John. It makes John appear less wooden and gives credence to Vishnu's changeover into a blood-thirsty animal. For long we have been questioning how the villain's bullet consistently misses the near and dear ones of the hero. Here Kamat doesn't provide the safety net to anybody, making it a true blue action fest with not many compromises to pander to the faint-hearted, who might feel alienated after a point. If Kamat could have done without the slow mos in the climax and the unnecessary musical interjections by Harris Jeyraj, it could have been a more potent force to reckon with.
Force
Genre: Action
Cast: John Abraham, Genelia D'Souza, Vidyut Jamwal, Mohnish Behl
Storyline: A Dabangg, who takes himself seriously, takes on drug mafia but is hit by a force that drives away the heroine!
Bottomline: Finally, an unbridled action entertainer that is not a no-brainer!
