It's the return of the prodigal and he couldn't have picked a better re-entry package. Some seven yeas after he abandoned slam-bang action for what passes for comedy in Bollywood, Akshay Kumar has seen the light and is back in action with “Rowdy Rathore”.
Sure, he's bashed up a couple of bad guys in the interim, as in “Chandi Chowk to China” but for the most part, he took to playing the buffoon in a string of execrable movies. Mainly because slapstick worked for him at the box-office, with films like “Singh is Kinng” and “Welcome” raking it in at the box-office.
So the macho actor stuck to inane jokes instead of indulging his inner khiladi. A pity, since he's one of the very few actors who does his own stunts, has real muscles and not steroidal ones, is a martial arts expert and actually looks like he could beat up five goons at the same time.
It is Prabhudeva — he of “Wanted” and “Pokiri” — who seems to have convinced him to reconnect with his true self, with this remake of the Telugu super hit, “Vikramarkudu”, which has spawned three other remakes so far: the Tamil “Siruthai”, Kannnada “Veera Madakari”, and Bengali “Bikram Singha”. In the Hindi version Khiladi Kumar is back in action, with a double role, no less, playing a conman who looks remarkably like a police officer in small-town Bihar and is forced to play saviour when the cop is killed.
The name says it all, the poster's looking good, the trailer's promising and industry buzz is expecting this one to be a humdinger.
The movie's certainly looks like it has all the ingredients of the formula. Expect lots of stunts, dialogue-baazi, mean grimaces and evil sneers as Akshay Kumar plays avenging angel.
Besides Prabhudeva and his hero, there's Sonakshi Sinha, for whom “Rowdy Rathore” will be her first outing after “Dabangg” and should prove if she has what it takes or was piggy-backing prettily on the industry's biggest stud.
There's also a catchy item number, Pritam Pyaare, plus cameos by Kareena Kapoor and Prabhudeva and a “special dance appearance” by Tamil star Vijay. They've pretty much thrown in all the gimmicks. What is also likely to work is that both Prabhudeva and his khiladi are unpretentious and unapologetic in their full-on masala approach. You can be pretty sure exactly what awaits you with “Rowdy Rathore”.
Bottomline: Expect lots of stunts, dialogue-baazi, mean grimaces and evil sneers
Rowdy Rathore
Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha
Director: Prabhudeva
Releases June 1, 2012
