<Review by: Anuvrat Bhansali>

Directed by Prabhudeva, produced by Sanjay Leela Bhansali. Starring Akshay Kumar, Sonakshi Sinha, Yashpal Sharma, Supreeth Reddy.

Akshay Kumar’s last: Housefull 2, Sonakshi Sinha’s last: Dabangg and Prabhudeva’s last: Wanted, all super hits. Well, there’s no mathematics here but if all three are coming together you’d expect a bomb. Remake of the Telugu action thriller – Vikramarkudu, Rowdy Rathore is a disjointed, partly funny and a unconvincing story yet it’s watchable for its dialogues and sheer stupidity. Thankfully, it’s far better than Tees Maar Khan.

A gaudy smartass thug on the streets of Mumbai, Shiva (Akshay Kumar) has promised to leave his con life for his love Priya (Sonakshi Sinha). All he wants is to steal a big deal for the last time and settle down forever. Having stolen a big box that seemed like a fortune, Shiva is clueless to see a small girl come out of the box and call him Papa. The confusion proliferates when Shiva is attacked by a group of men and saved by another small group, one of which includes his look alike (Akshay in a double role) – ASP Vikram Rathore. Face-to-face with a badly hit Vikram Rathore fighting for life in a hospital, Shiva becomes akin to his story. Shiva now has to take up Rathore’s responsibilities and vindicate his friends against the tyrants of their village. Unperturbed by beastly villains, Shiva becomes the fearless force that Rathore was and fights for his love, life, friends and daughter.

Just like a movie from the 70s, Rowdy Rathore is a concoction of good Vs. bad, humour, drama, seemingly undefeatable rogues, action, a parent-child twist, emotions, a little oomph and dialogues that scare the soul of villains. The absolute delight that Wanted was, Rowdy Rathore in comparison is a notch down but it’s a film that’s both hopeless and exciting at the same time. There are funny acts and parts where you know your senses are being completely taken for granted, like the part when a local thief who fears getting caught becomes a fearless and astute police officer in no time and fights like he defies death.

Sometimes we need senseless entertainment and Rowdy Rathore gives us just that! You’ll either love it or hate it – no midway whatsoever.

The era of ostentatious action sequences continues with Rowdy Rathore, heavily inspired by Guy Ritchie’s slow-motion cinematography in the Sherlock Holmes movies. The genre that Rowdy Rathore fits in belongs only to either Salman or Ajay Devgn and therefore Akshay Kumar should have shown his Khiladi side more than his Housefull side. Sonakshi Sinha isn’t a tad as desirable as she was in Dabangg. Unapologetically fat and oblivious to her part, she doesn’t add anything to the plot. The little girl playing Rathore’s daughter has acted better than Sonakshi.

Yashpal Sharma should’ve been on the evil side because that’s where he fits the best. Telugu bad-boy, Supreeth Reddy is a villain worthy of the rowdy policemen. He’ll remind you of Gabbar Singh – the quintessential Bollywood villain. There’s no credit for Prabhudeva – a lot of Rowdy Rathore has been copied scene by scene from the original Telugu film. The music is also pre-2000s and distasteful thanks to Sonakshi Sinha’s flab. The ‘Chintata’ song and its steps have been pointlessly overused and sooner or later, you ought to say ‘enough, please!’

Rowdy Rathore has nothing new to it but since it has everything in small and heavy doses it is in popular parlance a Total Timepass Watch!