War: Bollywood action movie review
War(2019) is a Bollywood action movie starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff. The movie, pitting two biggest action stars of India against each other, is about an Indian agent who goes rogue and then the mission to apprehend him is given to his mentee. The film has been directed by Siddharth Anand.
Bollywood has been averse to big-budget action films for a while now. The action genre has given some of the biggest blockbusters to the Hindi film industry, right from Sholay to Gadar: Ek Prem Katha. Lately, the focus on the content films as well as lukewarm reception to some biggies like Race 3, Thugs of Hindostan etc. had led to a dearth of action films in Bollywood. The problem, clearly, was with the way the action movies were being conceived and at the same time, the success of Saaho in the Hindi heartland proved that there was a starved audience for just this type of cinema. War couldn't have come at a better time.
At the time of writing this review, War starring Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff had already crossed 150 crores at the domestic box office. The numbers clearly spell out that with the right star cast and a crowd-pleasing story, the action genre can still give huge numbers. Let's check out the review of War.Plot
The movie begins with the murder of a top official of Indian secret service by Kabir (Hrithik), an Indian agent. The news of their top agent going rogue forces Colonel Luthra (Ashutosh Rana) to find someone to track him down and finish him. He chooses Khaled (Tiger) for this mission as he was the mentee of Kabir and knows him very well. The movie then moves into a flashback to reveal how Kabir and Khaled met. Kabir had killed the father of Khaled who was a traitor and so he was sceptical initially with regard to latter's loyalty. Nonetheless, he accepts him as a team member. They then go on a mission to nab Ilyasi, a businessman who has been funding the terrorist organizations for their operations in India. The mission goes horribly wrong. Kabir then goes rogue a few months later. Still believing that there must be some plausible reason behind Kabir's betrayal, Khaled goes after him in order to stop him from committing further crimes. What transpires later forms the crux of the second half of the movie. Review
When the movie was first announced, there was a mixed reaction from most of the circles. On one hand, there was genuine anticipation regarding seeing two top actions stars have a face-off. At the same time, there were doubts as in the past year itself, two big-budgeted actions films had been a great disappointment. Then there was director Siddharth Anand whose last movie Bang Bang, another actioner, was a complete let-down. However, some of the doubts were subsided after the trailer was released. The movie, as it turns out, is just the right kind of action film that audience have craved forever since the last big actioner Tiger Zinda Hai (2017)
Taking a cue from the critical reception of Bang Bang, director Anand has worked a lot more on the script. The 2014 movie was most criticized for the idiotic screenplay (to go along with Katrina Kaif's horrible acting) and over-the-top emotional drama. Here Anand has kept the melodrama at bay and put the romance on the back-burner. So the movie is a roller coaster ride from the beginning to the end. The consistency in the script has helped the film in connecting most of the dots in the climax of the film. War is not original when it comes to plot, but the movie is successful in avoiding the pitfalls of Race and TOH.
The strongest aspect of War is its production values. The movie looks gorgeous and has some stunning action pieces. The cinematography is also very good. And complementing all of this is the comeback guy Hrithik. He owns the movie right from the moment he makes that grand entry (there was a lot of cheer in the theatre). He eases into the role tailor-made for him. War yet again proves that action genre is the forte of Hrithik and he should definitely try to make more of them in future. Shroff is brilliant in action scenes and an equal match to Hrithik, but his limited acting capabilities in emotional scenes let him down. Vani Kapoor has a brief role but thankfully, she is not playing a love interest. Other actors have little to do in this action spectacle which is all about two leading action stars of India.
War is not without its flaws. The action is grand but it lacks innovation and so after a certain point, becomes repetitive. The climax action could have easily been edited to give the sequence more edge. The length of the movie could have been shorter. A no of plot points are heavily borrowed from Hollywood flicks and so the twists don't come as surprise if you pay even a little attention. The thrill factor is also absent in a movie that is dealing with secret agents and covert missions.
In spite of its drawbacks, War is a decent entertainer that doesn't bore you or make you scratch your head in sheer disappointment. I will give it 3.5 stars out of 5.
I have watched the movie War on the day it was released. The only thing which I liked about the movie was Hrithik Roshan's acting and the stunt actions of both Tiger and Hrithik.
There were many loopholes in the plot. Scenes like how after the guy Saurabh was transformed as Tiger Shroff through surgery, he got the same voice as Tiger and how he was able to dance like him, how Hrithik gets rid of the poison he was made to drink at the end of the movie and who reported that Veena Kapoor had come to spy on the villain etc were the things which made audience confused.