347. Sooryavanshi; movie review

 

 

SOORYAVANASHI

Cert 12A

145 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, threat, occasional bloody images, suicide scene

It was inevitable that Bollywood would follow Hollywood's successful blockbuster franchise model  but there was intrigue over how it could do it.

After all, it has never specialised in superhero movies, probably because it couldn't muster the giant budgets they need.

So, Rohit Shetty alighted upon what Indian cinema does best - crazy but intrepid cops.

Akshay Kumar's Sooryavanshi had appeared very briefly during the final throes of the Ranveer Singh vehicle Simmba.

The latter emerges in the final stages of this film, alongside Ajay Devgn as Singham, one of Indian cinemas most famous law enforcers.

The trio are now part of what Shetty has coined the Cop Universe.

Anyway, in the main, this movie centres on Kumar's character and his team's work preventing a new series of terrorist attacks on Mumbai.

Meanwhile, he is trying to save his crumbling marriage to a doctor (Katrina Kaif) who saved his life nine years previously.

Kumar reprises the swagger we have seen in dozens of films - he is the maverick who is almost deliberately unconventional in tracking down villains.

He is also fearless to the point of recklessness - certainly in the eyes of his wife who is threatening to take their son to Australia to get away from him.

Nevertheless, come hell or high water, he is determined that he and his loyal team are going to quell the murderous threat.

While there is no singing and dancing set pieces until the credits of Sooryavanshi, the action is slightly tempered by the movie's humour (there is an ongoing gag about the hero forgetting names - even of his closest lieutenants).

The jarring element of Sooryavanshi is that it is yet another film which stokes the fire of India's relationship with Pakistan.

I don't live in India nor did I have relatives who lived through the horrors of Partition but does there need to be so much naked aggression from the cinema industry?

This film blames Pakistan for harbouring terrorists and appears to be anti-Muslim but Shetty has responded angrily to those accusations and there are a couple of peripheral Muslim characters who are good guys.

Otherwise it is "Jai Hind" all the way.

And the real takeaway from Shetty's film will be the establishment of the Cop Universe, the great stunts and the emotional tie-up between Kumar's character and Kaif's.

It scores well in all of these areas.

I suspect Sooryavanshi will be the start of something big 

Reasons to watch: Three movie op heroes for the price of one

Reasons to avoid: Is rather too silly at times

Laughs: One

Jumps: None

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 7.5/10

Did you know? Sooryavanshi is the first film in The Rohit Shetty's Cop Universe which is an original story. Previous instalments were based on existed works.

The final word. Rohit Shetty: "“We decided to make a cop universe during Simmba. The younger generation have started understanding this concept due to the Marvel Universe. So we took the risk and went ahead with it. And now, people have accepted this as a universe too.” Pink Villa

Share this post