Khiladi 786 (2012) Reviews

• Decent Comedy but with It's Faults

  houghtonconnor172013-01-15

  First I would like to clarify that aside from having Akshay Kumar in a starring role, this film is nothing like the Khiladi movies from the 90's. I will start this review with the negative aspects of the film and then move on to where it succeeds. Firstly, as is increasingly common with Bollywood films these days, the Punjabi element is noticeably there both linguistically and thematically. This is not so wrong except that I think that over-Punjabization makes it somewhat difficult to follow some plot lines and jokes. Additionally, there is not really a message in this film to follow and some of the jokes fall stale. Also, the storyline about Akshay Kumar's character's long lost brother does seem to be not only tangential, but also completely unnecessary. In addition, while many of the fight scenes are choreographed well, some of them do tend to drag and could have been more sharply edited. On to what the film does well. The supporting cast, other than the non-Indian characters (as per usual with Bollywood) all do a fair job in creating a hilarious atmosphere. Asin is adequate in her role, though she has been typecast so far in Bollywood as the pretty girl who gets duped a lot and does not have much to do other than be eye candy, a standard which she adheres to here with aplomb. Akshay Kumar and Mithun Chakraborty both do an excellent job in creating a comic atmosphere without being overly obnoxious, which is somewhat helped by the characteristically helpless look that Chakraborty has perfected for his role as the stern patriarch (he has played the same role in about a half dozen movies by now so he should be getting good at it in any case). In addition, the songs are fairly catchy in their own way, though Himesh Reshammiya has a hard time making a love song not sound ridiculous. Overall this was a decent masala entertainer from Bollywood that, while not comedic gold, is nevertheless a far better outing than some of the other choices from Akshay Kumar this past year. Good for a watch.

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• Please Stop Making rubbish movies or else i will also start making them :D

  ssng-892013-01-01

  I don't know whats happening with bollywood....the good movies are all gone..=..Movies with no stories,No Powerful comedies..in short nothing khiladi 786 and than dabang 2...2012 may not be the end of the world but it surely is for bollywood :( :( ..The Original ones are gone..with the end of "Jab tak hai jaan"-YASH CHOPRA,This might be the reason for me to switch to Hollywood more and more nowadays...I am not saying that all the movies are bad but standards are deteriorating day-by-day..this movie is the live example of that....The movie is bekaar....total flop.Don't watch it...And if you really want to see this movie than take a saridon and watch it...lolz I hope for the best in 2013...and look forward To watch the best movie of the decade this year... By This review i just wanted to beg the stars to Please look at the script before making movie...Otherwise they will be headache for you as well as for us...

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• The mass manipulation of media by moneyed mainstream has tarnished the quality of Indian cinema, giving birth to products such as Khiladi 786

  sashank_kini-12012-12-20

  Plot: Akshay Kumar plays himself but since he is an 'actor' and the 'film' requires it's cast to have unique character names, he is therefore called Bahattar Singh; the guy is a con policeman whose entire family of equally tough men believe in making money catching criminals and sometimes framing innocents wrongfully, but the same guy is also rejected by every girl in the town. The leading lady Asin asininely plays a crime lord's daughter whose lover remains behind bars and so she takes all her prospective bridegrooms on a deadly car drive so that they can reject her. The marriage-maker is played here by Himesh Reshammiya, whose character's idiosyncrasies put him in great trouble. Supporting cast made up by people usually associated with Akshay Kumar films. After being repeatedly and uninhibitedly subjected to erratic zip-zap-zoom cinematography with not really visible attempts at fine-tuning, shoddy, so-obvious-it's- made-out-of-cheaper-quality-material set properties and horrifyingly loud and sometimes out-of-sync sound that has the ability to molest one's ear, an Indian like me has begun to believe that the availability of good technology, the assumption that the Indian audience always keeps their cerebrum aside while entering the theater and the mass manipulation of the media by the moneyed mainstream has corrupted many of today's Indian directors, actors and production crew, who seemed to have forgone the basic elements of creating a good cinema and completely left out the advantages of a well-penned script, thereby tarnishing quality completely in favor of show-me-the-money! Ah I feel so good now after getting this off my chest! This the the pent up feeling (or rant) that bubbled within me with each new frame in Khiladi 786, whose director is incompetent, whose producer (the lead actor's wife herself) is a cash cow, whose cinematographer is reckless, whose sound recordist is insane and whose actors are extremely aware of their limitations yet incredibly proud that they still are minting money while hundred of capable actors aren't getting their dues. Salman Khan dropped the bar to depths rivaling Othello's hapless state after realizing the deceit played on him by the manipulative Iago, but Akshay out-lowers him with smelly poo excreted into an expensive diaper. Only time shall tell whether it is Salman who goes even lower in Dabang 2 or it is some third person who walks away with the usually-dreaded-but-now-coveted-because- money-is-at-least-recovered Hall of Shame. Since the movie took it's audience for granted, I did the same for the movie: I left (read 'fled') during the interval. It should not be the way a movie should be critiqued but there are certainly exceptions such as this wacky piece. I'm not sure whether the director tried doing a Tarantino (i.e. using prominent qualities from low budget action film in developing a highly stylized, high quality movie, such as Kill Bill inspired by small budget Japanese martial arts films), but in case he did, then he has failed miserably. Just getting a better camera and better recording devices aren't the keys of making a better film; would Kill Bill have received such a glorious response had it just got a very expensive camera with sharper clarity and high-tech sound devices without creating the epic saga, using proper narrative devices or choreographing it's complex martial arts moves with beauty and precision? The people associated with Khiladi 786 are all spoilt brats who shamelessly exploit wrongly the resources they are able to obtain just because they have so much money.  The most disturbing part of films such as Khiladi 786 is the open misogynist values it promotes. Asin's character is a rough rider who can only be controlled by a man, and so there's a humiliating sequence where Akshay's character Sattar dumps her on the shotgun seat, takes charge of the driver seat and drives at a monstrous speed to make her submit to his manhood completely. In between the sequence, the action is cut to a fantasy sequence where Sattar driving a swanky car and Asin sits beside him and acts like one of those bimbos in music videos. I've seen this with Salman Khan films too - nearly all his leading ladies literally act like they are completely powerless under Salman's mighty control. Seems like my rant has still not finished, but what else can said about this work? Akshay Kumar has admitted he isn't very talented as an actor but he proves now that he has stopped being an entertainer too. Asin has been having a Ghajini hangover for over two years and it's time she really tries her hand at some other profession. Reshammiya should suck his hubris about being multi-talented and stick to what he does best... Judge music shows that I don't watch so I do not get to see his face. The rest of the cast knows they risk losing their money-making jobs if either Akshay or Salman quits, so they remain loyal to their films, no matter how hopelessly their little talent is exploited. 

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• Its high time Bollywood takes its audience seriously

  sujath28072012-12-09

  In spite of witnessing recently released classic Akshay Kumar flops ( Tees Maar Khan , Joker ) i still went for this movie remembering Akshay's old action flicks (Khiladi, Khiladiyon ka .....) hoping to see Akshay in a serious yet a comic role. I realized my mistake 15 minutes in to the movie. Making funny faces, speaking in a funny tone and funny character names does not make audiences laugh. Using a concept which was tried tested and horribly failed at makes the movie even more boring,if i could recall i hardly laughed that too at the stupidity of the film makers that how could they even think that this stuff will sell ? to defend their faults they will title it 'Mindless Comedy' there's no such thing as mindless comedies we pay good amount of money for purchasing a movie ticket and we deserve an intelligent script, lately film makers are making such movies and calling them comedies and changing the audience perception about comedy movies. Where are the movies like "3 Idiots , Dhamaal , Hera Pheri , and the legend 'Andaaz Apna Apna' those movies are called as comedies they were intelligently funny. I really wouldn't suggest this movie to any one, and there isn't anything worth reviewing in this movie. I felt insulted and stupid going for this movie, and would want our film makers to stop treating audiences as foolish as their movies, and work a little bit harder when they are writing scripts and stories. I rate this movie 3 because of the effort of 100's of people put in to this movie even though it was horrible and also for its music ( though i am sure it must have been copied from somewhere, still two numbers in this movie are catchy remaining songs like Saari , Saari Raath made me laugh like crazy though it was meant to be sad or a romantic song Himesh reshmaiyya stooped down to one more level just when we thought that he couldn't be any worse ) If you are looking for a comedy there's nothing new here, i would rather suggest you to rent few Hindi classic comedies and enjoy them instead of making the actors and film makers of this kind rich for free.

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• Laughter riot & a paisa vasool treat for Akshay & Salman fans, for the rest of us: stay away!

  darshancruz2012-12-08

  As long as Bollywood will continue making such cinema, we would be surprised when we get to see a 'Kahaani' or a 'Talaash'. Although this one's not as pathetic as Joker, nevertheless it falls in the same place. It felt like this movie was borrowed from Housefull2 , Ready & Rowdy Rathore. A cop image that reminds you of Dabangg and RR. A house full of goons/ wrong identities reminds you of House full 2 Akshay trying to impress Asin reminds you of Ready. The dialogues were simply song lines or copied from other movies. But there is 1 lesson to be learnt in this movie:Vertical parallel parking , sideways & jumping a car by our 'khiladi'. Asin repeats a 'ready'. Mithun continues his Housefull villainics. Johnny Lever has lost his touch. The other actors need not be mentioned. May be Riteish/Shreyas started charging money , hence Himesh had to replace them. And finally our Khiladi Akshay Kumar fails to do a Dabangg. The songs are one of the worst HR albums. Tough times lie ahead for Salman Khan but am sure he will be 'ready' to prove that he is more 'wanted' than our 'joker'. The Bollywood battle for the hero with maximum non sensical films is a tough competition between these 2 stalwarts ! Hope 1 of them wins soon and relieves us by 50%.

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