Chanthupottu (2005) : A Controversy

                            Chanthupottu is a Malayalam movie directed by Lal Jose and released in 2005 . It tells the story of Radhakrishn...

Sep 7, 2016

Akira Hindi Movie Review


If the strength of Akira, the latest A R Murugadoss flick is the performance of its lead actress and a surprising but effective act from Anurag Kashyap, the weakness lies in the screenplay and story. A remake of 2011 Tamil film Mouna Guru, Murugadoss when he adapted the film to Bollywood replaced the male version with a female oriented subject that has a martial arts trained Akira quite impressively portrayed by Sonakshi Sinha. Though the product is not bad, it could have been far better had it converted the sincere efforts of two people in front of the camera into something convincing.

A sincere family man and a loving father could not see her daughter Akira becoming a victim of eve-teasing and acid attacks at the hands of men. Unlike her female friends who learn dance and moves ahead in life in an orthodox fashion, Akira is taught martial arts at the instance of her father as a self defence mechanism and for reacting against any sort of injustice and harassment.

The film begins with a shocking scene and takes us to fourteen years back where the young girl Akira grows up in Jodhpur, Rajasthan. The family consisting of the lead protagonist and her mother moves to Mumbai at the instance of her brother.

Reluctantly Akira relocate to Mumbai and pursue her studies but unfortunately gets embroiled in a cover-up led by four corrupt police men lead by ACP Govind Rane. What happens to her, how she fights against the people who have plotted the evil plan against her and how those cops without any level of mercy try to ruin the life of this young girl form the crux of the storyline.

The beginning portion especially the pre-intermission portion shows lot of promise and is very much engaging with life in it. But the latter half question the senses with too much of unconvincing things happening. Murugadoss has tried his best in lifting the film to the next level but the weakness in screenplay acted as a thorn in that mission. A better packaging and treatment after the halfway mark could have done wonders for this film but unfortunately the director could not perform anything magical to lift the sagging film out of doldrums.

Giving a welcome change to the usual pattern in Bollywood where the male hero fighting against the bad people through a role reversal by casting a female for that duty is noteworthy but that itself doesn't make up for a overwhelming movie experience. Couple of instances where the director attempting to convey relevant messages to the public is praiseworthy. But the script lacks the firepower in it to retain the energy till the very end as the steam is almost lost by midway through the cat and mouse game between Akira and cops.

The backbone and soul of the film without any question is Sonakshi Sinha and Anurag Kashyap. Stunning acts from both of them as Akira and ACP Govind Rane. Sonakshi has definitely put on extra efforts into the action side apart from bringing out a solid act as the protagonist with dual shade in the character.This should rank among one of her best performance after the intense Lootera. Well for Kashyap, I hope that he gets more such performance oriented roles to showcase the other side of his newly discovered talent apart from direction.

Konkona Sen Sharma as investigating officer Rabia seems to be a poorly etched out character. Though she has tried her best, the script hasn't given her ample space to display her acting talents. Among the other supporting actors, the three cops accompanying ACP Rane were apt in those roles.Camera work was good. Sreekar Prasad's editing kept the flow and movement from each scene intact. Background score was effective and music was just okay.

Overall, Akira is nothing more than an average film which is backed by notable performances. I would recommend the film only for Anurag Kashyap and Sonakshi Sinha's efforts. But the sad part is that their notable acts have gone wasted and has contributed more or less for a lost cause.

Rating - 2.5 / 5

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your feedback is always appreciated. We will try to reply to your queries as soon as time allows.
Note: Abusive and Spam comments will be deleted immediately upon our review.
Regards,
Admin